Cockfighting
(undisclosed), TX (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Feb 10, 2011
County: Angelina
Disposition: Convicted
Defendants/Suspects:
» Juan Gonzales
» Bruno Gonzales
State District Judge Paul White passed down a guilty ruling Wednesday against two Angelina County men charged with cruelty to livestock animals.
A father and son, Juan Gonzales and Bruno Gonzales, were arrested on Jan. 17, 2010, for allegedly fighting roosters at their home on Highway 103 west.
Angelina County Sheriff's Office animal control officer Melanie Wade testified that she seized two dead chickens that had been placed in feed sacks and two injured chickens from the home.
Two small cases full of equipment used for cockfighting, including vitamins, short knives and thread, were also taken from the home and placed into an evidence locker at the sheriff's office, Wade said.
Bruno and his brother, Juan Carlos, admitted to fighting roosters in Louisiana several years ago, before the practice had been banned. Juan Carlos said the cases were from then and have not been used since.
The men claimed they were only sparring the animals for friends who were at the home for a cookout. Bruno claimed during testimony that they put sparring gloves on their spurs to keep the birds from getting hurt.
"We wanted to show people how athletic (the chickens) are," Bruno said, adding that they only let the chickens "go at each other" once before separating them.
The men said the chickens had been hurt when two escaped their pens and tried to fight two other birds through the wire coop -- not from sparring.
However, the state's expert, Heather Ferguson, a coordinator for the attorney general of New Mexico's animal cruelty task force, said sparring still constitutes as cockfighting.
"If they were sparring, you would see bruising to the body," Ferguson said. "You wouldn't have bloody, dead roosters."
In his decision, White said he found no legal distinction between chicken fighting and sparring.
A sentence for father and son will be handed down in approximately six weeks after a pre-sentence investigation is conducted by a probation officer, prosecutor Dale Summa said.
Bond conditions were also increased. The men cannot spar or sell the animals. References |
