Cockfighting - nearly 100 birds seized
Ogden, UT (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Apr 8, 2006
County: Weber
Disposition: Convicted
Abuser names unreleased
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Police arrested nine people and confiscated nearly 100 chickens in a cockfight bust in a central Ogden neighborhood on April 8. The Humane Society of Utah believes illegal cockfights happen all over the state nearly every weekend.
Officers, responding to an anonymous tip Saturday night, discovered a cockfight in progress at a home on the 200 block of Patterson Street, Ogden Police Lt. Scott Sangberg said. Several cars were parked in front of the home and police said one of the men was walking out of the back yard as officers arrived.
"He turned around and yelled something in Spanish," Sangberg said. "Then everyone started walking quickly toward the back of the property."
Behind a 6-foot-tall fence, police said, they found the cockfight in the back yard. Fresh blood was on the ground. A rooster was already dead from a recent fight, police said.
"They were just drinking beer and watching the chickens fight," Sangberg said one of the men told officers.
Police seized vitamins, syringes and leg razors, which are strapped to the legs of the roosters for the fights.
Nine people were booked into the Weber County Jail on various charges, including investigation of cruelty to animals, tampering with evidence and fraud. "It was very well concealed," Ogden Animal Services Manager Bob Geier said of the cockfight ring. "The fences all around it, the house was kind of segregated from the other houses."
Animal-control officers seized about 100 chickens that Geier said were being bred at the home. Investigators said the men were betting on the cockfights and one of the men had about $5,000 on him.
Ogden police and animal-control officers said it is the first such bust in city limits in recent years. In 2002, Weber County sheriff's deputies busted up a cockfight in West Haven, arresting three. In January, 19 people were arrested in a cockfight bust in Lindon. The Humane Society of Utah believes cockfighting happens almost every weekend throughout the state.
"Some have had bleachers, snack bars and side pits," said John Paul Fox, chief investigator for the Humane Society of Utah. "Or it can be a few guys getting together in a back yard."
Efforts to boost the criminal penalty for certain animal-cruelty cases - such as cockfighting - have failed in Utah.
Rep. Scott Wyatt, R-Logan, ran legislation in 2005 and again this year seeking to elevate cockfighting to aggravated cruelty of an animal, which would make it a third-degree felony.
The legislation, which also addressed other forms of animal cruelty such as deliberate poisoning, failed the first year because of concerns it was too broad. This last session, it passed in the House but died in the Senate.
Across the country, cockfighting is a felony in 31 states. And 41 states have laws on the books making animal cruelty a felony, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Federal legislation is pending to strengthen laws governing illegal animal fighting, an activity that in some cases law enforcement has linked to the illegal drug trade.
Case UpdatesNine men involved in a cockfight busted in Ogden have pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.
One by one, at court appearances in 2nd District Court in Ogden throughout the week, the men pleaded guilty to class B misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals and watching animals fight, said Ogden city chief prosecutor Michael Junk.
"There were those that were starting it," he said Friday, "and those participating who were present as a spectator."
Two men were accused of running the cockfighting ring. One was sentenced to 60 days in jail, the other was given a $1,000 fine. The seven observers were ordered to pay $350 fines. | Source: Deseret News - April 15, 2006
Update posted on Apr 17, 2006 - 1:42PM |
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