9 roosters rescued from Tulare County cockfighting ring

Sheyanne N Romero, Visalia Times-Delta
·3 min read
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Nearly a dozen roosters were rescued from a cockfighting ring in southern Tulare County, according to sheriff's officials.

Around 10 a.m. Sunday, deputies were in Pixley for a report of a cockfight near Avenue 84 and Road 176. When deputies arrived, they noticed many cars and people huddled inside a grove.

Nine roosters were rescued during the raid and turned over to animal control. Several people were arrested. One of the suspects had 25 gaffs in his car, according to sheriff's officials. Gaffs are weapons secured on to roosters during a fight to make the fight more violent.

The suspects were booked into the South County Detention Facility and suspected of possessing cockfighting implements. Their vehicles were also towed.

“These arrests are an encouraging sign that Tulare County authorities are treating cockfighting in a serious-minded way," said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. "Cockfighting is not only cruelty but closely tied to illegal gambling, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and other illicit activities. Our country must pass a stronger federal law to end animal fighting.”

Animal Wellness Action, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, recently announced national anti-animal fighting legislation. The Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act was introduced in Congress to strengthen the federal law against dogfighting and cockfighting.

“Tens of thousands of cockfighters and dogfighters raise millions of animals and sell them or enter them into fights for the thrill of the bloodletting and the illegal payouts and gambling,” Pacelle stated. “Most people rightly recognize animal fighting as a settled moral issue, but enforcement has lagged. A vast animal-fighting underworld spawns cruelty and spills out other forms of crime and mayhem in our communities.”

It's already a federal crime to:

  • Knowingly sponsor or exhibit in an animal fighting venture;

  • Knowingly attending an animal fighting venture or knowingly causing an individual who has not attained the age of 16 to attend an animal fighting venture;

  • Knowingly buy, sell, possess, train, transport, deliver, or receive any animal for purposes of having the animal participate in an animal fighting venture;

  • Knowingly use the mail service of the U.S. Postal Service, or any “written, wire, radio televisions or another form of communications in, or using a facility of, interstate commerce,” to advertise an animal for use in an animal fighting venture, or to advertise a knife, gaff, or other sharp instrument designed to be attached to the leg of a bird for us in an animal fighting venture, or to promote or in any other manner further an animal fighting venture except as performed outside the U.S.;

  • Knowingly sell, buy, transport, or deliver in interstate or foreign commerce “a knife, a gaff, or any other sharp instrument” designed or intended to be attached to the leg of a bird for us in an animal fighting venture.

This case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Tulare County Sheriff’s Department at 1-800-808-0488 or anonymously at tcso@tipnow.com or 725-4194.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 9 roosters rescued from Tulare County cockfighting ring