Cockfighting - approx 1000 roosters and chickens on-site Napa, CA (US) Incident Date: Saturday, Feb 22, 2003 County: Napa Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Abuser names unreleased

Case ID: 841 Classification: Fighting Animal: chicken View more cases in CA (US) Login to Watch this Case

An alleged illegal cockfighting operation on Foster Road in Napa was busted Saturday afternoon by a state/county task force that has been closing in on the property for eight months.

Officers made one arrest and issued nine citations for misdemeanor cockfighting and the Immigration and Naturalization Service made one arrest for immigration violations, said Doug Pace, with Napa County Sheriff's Department.

After arriving with a court-issued warrant at 12:15 p.m., officers representing law enforcement agencies from Los Angeles to Galt waded through mud, rooster excrement, trash and dead rats and found the telltale signs of cockfighting: razor-sharp spurs, steroids and syringes.

"It's just a big dump," Pace said.

Humane Society officers were on hand to check the welfare of an estimated 1,000 roosters and chickens at the site, a job they expected to stretch into most of today. In addition to illnesses and cockfighting injuries, officers will be looking for Newcastle disease, a deadly avian infection that struck the state's poultry industry in the 1970s and has resurfaced in Southern California.

Eric Sakach, West Coast regional director for the Humane Society, said the landscape of 1895 Foster Road is typical of what he's seen at similar raids throughout the state.

"Sparring muffs, all the various drugs, steroids ... there's no doubt this is a cockfighting operation," Sakach said.

There were other animals on site as well. One calf -- matted, filthy and shivering -- was thought to have pneumonia. There were a few goats and rabbits and about eight dogs that were taken away by animal control. Some of the dogs were pit bulls and Rottweilers, but Pace said they did not appear to have been bred for fighting.

The raid was the conclusion of an eight-month investigation by the county sheriff's department. Officers collected aerial photographs of cockfights and wire taps of conversations and undercover agents recently bought a fighting cock from one of the tenants, Pace said.

Although a fight wasn't underway at the time of the raid, Pace said officers collected enough evidence to build a case against the tenants and put the issue before a judge.

The roosters will be impounded on the site as evidence, and the birds' owners will be unable to remove them. They will need, however, to claim their birds, but will be ticketed as they do so.

The property is owned by Vallejo lawyer Stephen Camden, who could not be reached at his office Saturday. Camden rents out 12 parcels on the property for $200 a month, according to Alvaro Castro, who manages the property for Camden.

In October, Castro told the Register that cockfighting was not allowed on the premises.  "When I rent this place, I tell them, 'not here,'" Castro said. "If you want to fight them, take that somewhere else."

The garage doors that surround the property went up not-so-quietly last summer, after the tenants were evicted from a eucalyptus grove in American Canyon that was said to be changing hands. The jungle-like property in that southern county city made newspaper headlines over the years for cockfighting busts and court-ordered cleanups.

Residents in both Napa and American Canyon have criticized local law enforcement for not cracking down sooner on the county's alleged cockfighting operations. Pace said his department was not ignoring the issue, but was busy collecting the money, evidence and manpower needed for a raid as large as Saturday's.

"We just wanted to build a really good case," Pace said.

Roseann Keegan can be reached at 256-2220 or [email protected]

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