Warrant issued for owner of fighting birds

Kendall Hatch/Daily News staff.Police say they found more than 20 finches and about 40 cages in this home at 133 West Union St. in Ashland. Officers say they believe it was part of a bird-fighting ring.
By Michael Morton

Posted Feb 18, 2010 @ 11:03 AM
ASHLAND — Police investigating a suspected bird-fighting ring secured an arrest warrant Wednesday for the owner of finches found at a farmhouse and are looking for three other men, all illegal immigrants, thought to have ties to the case.

Ashland Sgt. Greg Fawkes said the owner would be charged with animal cruelty and keeping and training animals for fighting, but police cannot release his name until he is found and arrested. The birds' owner, the other three suspects and their former housemates at 133 West Union St. are from Brazil and are in the country illegally, Fawkes said.

The case began when a passerby reported seeing thick smoke coming from the home's chimney Jan. 28. Firefighters found more than 20 people living in the house, with mattresses and mini-refrigerators spread around and a few residents trying to light a log and some paper in the fireplace.

In the basement, officers found more than 20 South American saffron finches and 40 cages but didn't know quite what to make of the situation, Fawkes said. One officer snapped a cell phone photo, which was sent to the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

The rescue league reported a week later that the animals and equipment might be part of an illegal bird-fighting and gambling ring. Male birds, sometimes with sharpened beaks, are put into cages to fight.

Police secured a search warrant several days later, and rescue league representatives joined Ashland officers and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a raid Saturday.

By then, most of the residents had moved out of the house, including the birds' owner. The two men home at the time said they did not know anything about the birds or about an infrared camera outside the house which can see people at night, Fawkes said.

A woman who used to live there and showed up later told police the same thing.

A closer look at the cages showed they were designed for transportation and fighting. Police believe the fights may have been staged elsewhere. Two males see a female in a separate compartment. When a partition is lifted, the territorial birds sing before battling to the death.

Following the raid, Ashland Animal Control Officer Cheryl Rudolph said the birds had been living in filth but were doing fine, with adoptions likely. Neither Rudolph nor the rescue league could not be reached for an update Wednesday.

During the raid, officers found forged immigration documents, but Ashland Police do not have authority to enforce federal immigration laws. Criminal record checks on the two men and woman came up clean.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agents did not make any arrests or issue any citations.

The raid took place at a farmhouse built in the 1700s by Thomas Valentine. More recently, it was owned by former Deputy State Treasurer Robert Foley, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to stealing $2.5 million from the state treasurer's office and served time in prison.

When Foley later sought permission to raze the house and adjacent barn for an assisted-living facility, he was blocked by the town's Historical Commission and eventually gave up. A message left on his cell phone this week was not returned.

Foreclosure proceedings began last July, but the Registry of Deeds shows that a sale to Swift Acquisitions was filed Tuesday. While a Woburn firm had been hired to auction the property, the company received an e-mail Wednesday to cancel.

The bird owner told officers responding to the chimney fire that he was renting the house. Given the number of tenants, the town building inspector and Board of Health were called, but neither could be reached Wednesday and it's not known if citations were issued.

Fawkes said officers visited the home four times previously for complaints about noise and fights.

For their probe, Ashland officers are conferring with their counterparts in Shelton, Conn. In a similar case last year, 150 finches were seized and 19 people arrested, including four MetroWest residents. The two men and woman interviewed Saturday told officers they had heard about the operation.

Shelton officers and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have said the otherwise quiet finches are less noticeable than dogs and roosters, species that are part of a better-known but still clandestine animal-fighting world.

Since the West Union Street raid, police have received calls about similar activity, Fawkes said.

"I do think we're going to hear more about it now," he said. "It's been under our noses. No one had heard of it, so no one knew what to look for."

(Michael Morton can be reached at mmorton@cnc.com.)


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