 Cockfighting - 25 birds seized
Lindon, UT (US)Date: Jan 22, 2006
County: Utah
Disposition: Alleged
Abuser names unreleased
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available |
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The fate of 25 gamecocks seized by police who raided a cockfight on Jan 22 in Lindon is still up in the air, but early indications are the birds will be killed.
Roosters confiscated during the bust were taken to the North Utah Valley Animal Shelter, where they will stay while officials decide what to do with them.
"Normally, (the roosters) end up being euthanized in these situations," said John Paul Fox, chief investigator for the Humane Society of Utah. In most cases, he said, such birds cannot be rehabilitated.
"You're not going to turn them into anything but a high-testosterone, stringy bird," he said.
Pleasant Grove police officers, who acted on a tip from an informant, found five dead roosters and made 19 arrests at the cockfighting tournament, which was being held in a barn. The crowd scattered at the arrival of the officers, Cullimore said.
Those arrested were given cruelty-to-animals citations, a class B misdemeanor that is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. All 19 were released from police custody after being cited.
Police also found a number of children between the ages of 8 and 10 at the site.
Gambling, weapons and narcotics are often linked to cockfights, according to the Human Society of the United States, but Cullimore said there was no evidence that weapons or drugs were present at the Lindon event.
He said police believe spectators were gambling but were unable to find money and the betting records when they scoured the site during the raid. "If we're able to prove the gambling, then we have a felony, but that's going to be tough to do because we have no documentation now," Cullimore said. "But we're still looking into all aspects of everything we can."
Inside the barn, Cullimore said there was a 10-foot arena constructed of wood and a sawdust floor, with wiring hung over it to keep the roosters in. Officers seized the equipment of five trainers, including scythe-shaped blades called gaffs that are tied onto the roosters' feet for the fights. The implements are designed to puncture and mutilate.
"When these guys fight," Cullimore said, "they fight them to the death."
Roosters are naturally territorial, Fox said, but the training, drugs and weapons they are given alter that natural tendency and make it deadly. Involvement in cockfights is often the result of family tradition, Fox said.
"A lot of it is multigenerational," he said. "People say, 'My grandfather did it, my father did it, so I'm going to do it.' "
Sunday's tournament was allegedly organized by a man who lives at the home where the barn is located. He was already in police custody, having been arrested Saturday night for unrelated warrants.
The last major cockfight bust was in Weber County in 2002, but that does not mean the fights are uncommon, Fox said.
"You can probably find cockfighting going on any weekend somewhere in Utah," he said.
Every state but New Mexico and Louisiana have outlawed cockfighting, and many states also have laws against being a spectator at cockfights.
Also, the federal Animal Welfare Act prohibits the interstate transport of birds for use in cockfights to states with laws against cockfighting.
Forty-one states have made cruelty to animals a felony charge, but Utah is not one of them. Being involved in a dogfight is a third-degree felony, but all other forms of animal cruelty remain misdemeanors.
The legislature is considering a bill, HB61, which would make animal torture a third-degree felony, but it would not apply to cockfighting.
"I don't think the courts or anyone else involved will interpret this law that way," Fox said. "But I have no doubt these animals are being tortured . . . it's something I just don't understand." Case Updates A Pleasant Grove police captain said investigators are looking into the possibility that 19 suspects arrested on misdemeanor counts for involvement in cockfights Sunday in a Lindon barn may face federal charges.
Capt. Cody Cullimore said Wednesday investigators are currently working with federal Agriculture and Customs officials to determine if the alleged cruelty to animals crimes would fall under federal law.
"Apparently there is a federal statute that makes participating in, being at, or organizing cockfights a mandatory one year in prison," he said.
Nineteen suspects were apprehended Sunday after police got a tip that individuals were holding illegal cockfights at a Lindon barn. Several children were also present at the event. | Source: Daily Herald - Jan 26, 2006
Update posted on Jan 26, 2006 - 10:43PM |
There also were admission-paying spectators and wagering when police raided a cockfight in a barn in Lindon on Sunday morning. Nineteen people were cited for animal cruelty, a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Police recovered 26 live roosters and five dead ones.
Police say similar fights have occurred recently in Utah. The spectators who were cited were from all over central Utah, Cullimore said, and many brought their own roosters.
"I'm sure this is something that goes on around here far more often than we know," Cullimore said. "It's just that it's in such a subculture that we don't hear about it."
The organizer appears to have been the son of the woman who was renting the property, Cullimore said. The son was in jail on an unrelated matter when the fight occurred. The mother was on the premises during the fight and appeared to have known what was happening, but was not cited, the captain said. It also appears some of the roosters belonged to the family, Cullimore said.
Spectators began arriving Sunday morning and paid an admission fee.
Inside the barn was an arena with an area of about 10 square feet, police said. It had wooden plank walls, a sawdust floor and a mesh wire ceiling. Spectators bet on the fights.
The competing roosters wore metal spurs - sharp, curved knife blades the animals use to hack each other.
An informant saw people entering the barn with animal crates and called police, Cullimore said. About 11:55 a.m., two police officers arrived and people began fleeing. The officers called for assistance and managed to corner some suspects in the barn.
There also were three or four children between 8 and 10 watching the fights from the barn rafters, Cullimore said.
The roosters were being held at the North Utah County Animal Shelter. Cullimore said the shelter will have to destroy any roosters that aren't claimed by the owners. | Source: Salt Lake City Tribune - Jan 24, 2006
Update posted on Jan 26, 2006 - 11:20AM |
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