Thread: TX:Nearly 200 arrests made at cockfighting arena

March 16, 2008, 2:20PM
Arrests made at cockfighting arena, pit bulls seized in separate raid


© 2008 The Associated Press


CORSICANA, Texas — Nearly 200 people were charged with gambling after officers raided a cockfighting operation Saturday that included bleachers for spectators and even a concession stand, authorities said.

Officers seized $170,000 in cash, about 300 birds, several guns, drugs and enough alcohol to fill the back of a pickup, the Navarro County Sheriff's Department said Sunday.

The owner of the property was charged with felony cruelty to farm animals, according to the sheriff's department.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was the largest seizure of birds it had ever been involved with in Texas.

In a separate incident in Houston, 41 malnourished pit bulls were seized from a breeding operation. An animal-protection official said some had scars indicating that they had been used for fighting.

In Navarro County, officials said 32 officers from the sheriff's department and the Corsicana police SWAT team with search and arrest warrants raided the residence of Adolfo Gabriel Luna on Saturday evening.

Officers said there were 250 to 300 people present, mostly in an outbuilding that appeared built for the sole purpose of conducting chicken fights. Spectators had come from Oklahoma and Louisiana.

The sheriff's department said by 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, 196 people had pleaded guilty to gambling charges before a justice of the peace, who opened her court at the scene. Three assistant Navarro County district attorneys were on hand, the sheriff's department said.

Luna, 43, was taken to the county jail to await arraignment, authorities said.

Officers worked through the night, searching several buildings on the 30-acre property about four miles west of Emhouse, and authorities said further charges were possible. The town is about 50 miles south of Dallas.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said 343 chickens were taken from the facility and would be held until a March 24 hearing before the justice of the peace in Corsicana, who will decide their fate.

In Houston, the malnourished pit bulls were being examined by veterinarians, the local SPCA said Sunday.

A tip from a passer-by led SPCA investigators Friday to a former horse stable in Crosby, just east of Houston, where the dogs were chained.

Heidi Brasher, a spokeswoman for the Houston SPCA, said the dogs had no fresh water and many had no access to proper shelter. One dog couldn't move because its chain was entangled in a gate. Others were housed in what appeared to be rabbit hutches.

Brasher said some dogs had scars that indicated they may have been used for fighting but that no fighting paraphernalia was found at the scene.

The identify of the dogs' owner was not immediately available.

A judge was expected to decide the dogs' fate at a hearing Tuesday. Brasher said the SPCA does not place pit bulls for adoption, so if it is awarded custody, it will euthanize them.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5623738.html

34 Congressmen Arrested In D.C. Cockfighting Crackdown
May 12, 2004 | Issue 40•19

WASHINGTON, DC—Washington police seized 22 members of the House of Representatives, 12 members of the Senate, and more than 100 fighting cocks Monday night, in the latest crackdown on blood sports at the highest levels of the U.S. government.


Congressmen Don Nickles (R-OK), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Dick Gephardt (D-MO), and John Lewis (D-GA) minutes before their arrest.

"At 1 o'clock this morning, uniformed officers, acting on tips from undercover operatives, staged simultaneous raids on four known beltway pits, arresting a large bipartisan coalition of legislative cockfighting enthusiasts," D.C. police chief Charles H. Ramsey told reporters Tuesday. "Of course, we were aware of the longstanding cockfighting problem, but we were shocked to catch so many highly placed lawmakers in the act of betting on, training, and selling fighting birds—or, in the case of [Rep.] Tammy Baldwin [D-WI], operating back-alley clubs."

A full report of evidence gathered in the raids will be issued later this week, but police have released certain facts, including details about a breeding network for elite fighting cocks—prized for their extreme aggressiveness and high pain threshold—run by members of the House Judiciary Committee. Undercover officers said they witnessed committee members selling birds to other congressmen for hundreds of dollars apiece.

Evidence also included photos of congressional motor-pool limousines that had been converted into "crating trucks" to transport cocks from venue to venue. Perhaps most stunning of all were the firsthand sightings of cocks, their crests and wattles surgically removed, being trained to fight with blades tied to their natural spurs in a 400-bird "hardening pen" in the basement of the Old Executive Office Building, just blocks away from the White House.

Detective William Gargano of the D.C. vice squad was present for the previous evening's raid on El Pollo Diablo, a cockfighting pit located among several blocks of abandoned warehouses in southeast D.C.

"I was there shooting undercover video when detectives and animal-control operatives, working in a combined task force, busted down all the doors to the place at once," Gargano said. "It had already been shaping up to be one hell of a night. [Sen. Dick] Lugar [R-IN] was a few hundred dollars ahead in the pit. His famous Stag Hammer just couldn't lose. Well, that didn't sit well with [Sen.] Hillary Clinton [D-NY], who accused him of giving his bird ginger and amphetamine suppositories to make it fight harder."

Continued Gargano: "Then [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein [D-CA] tried to suck her rooster's punctured lung clear so it could last a whole match, but she swallowed too much blood and puked everywhere. [Supreme Court Justice David] Souter had just broken up a fight between [Rep.] Mark Kennedy [R-MN] and [Rep. Jim] Oberstar [D-MN], after they knocked the damn carcass barrel all over the floor. When the raid happened, I was relieved. It was getting pretty dicey in there."

The raids themselves were carried out with minimal resistance. Only Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) needed to be restrained and charged with resisting arrest.


Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) inspects fighting birds during a cock-buying trip to Tibet.

Ramsey said that, though formal charges have yet to be filed, the congressmen taken into custody will most likely be charged with illegal gambling, animal cruelty, and collusion. Nearly all of the arrested cockfighting enthusiasts are out of jail after posting bail. However, not one of the arrested parties, even those who were not elected officials, has agreed to speak openly to reporters.

One legislator who asked not to be identified said the charges were "petty," and that the indicted members of Congress were victims of a "witch-hunt."

"Although violent, cockfighting is a traditional part of the American lawmaker's way of life," the legislator said. "It's a sport, with a code of conduct the uninitiated simply wouldn't understand. I'm sure many of the good people of Oklahoma, hypothetically speaking, would agree that there's a place for different people's tastes in this great country. As far as the cruelty charges go, that's ludicrous. I love my fighting cocks—my wife likes to say I treat my champion red-eyes better than I treat her—and I'm sure my fellow Congressmen would say much the same."

As troubling as the mere existence of a legislative cockfighting ring may be, lawmakers who were not implicated in the scandal say they are more disturbed by evidence that legislation has been derailed, altered, or passed based on successes and failures in the cockfighting pit.

"One week, the Civic Funding for Secondary Education Act is dead in the water, with no compromise on the horizon," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said. "The very next week, 12 Democrats turn over on their votes. I heard strange rumors that some hefty debt to the Senate Republicans was just erased—something involving '10-to-1 odds on a one-eyed Rhode Island Red.' It didn't make sense until this morning, when I flipped on the news and saw all these same senators getting cuffed at the rooster pit in a basement off Constitution."

"Now that I think about it, this may explain why the Chicken Feed Price Stabilization Act passed through the House so quickly last month," McCain added.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/34 ... ted_in_d_c