RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail Story
Cockfighting expected to grow in Kern
| Monday, Dec 31 2007 3:27 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Dec 31 2007 3:27 PM
On farmland hidden behind hills, some men were preparing for cockfighting when the cops showed up the Sunday before Christmas.
Our readers recommend:
Loading Stories
Kern County Sheriff’s deputies had an anonymous tip and, after searching for about 20 minutes, found the site, where they arrested 10 men.
Senior Deputy Mark King was there. He had also been along on an attempted bust two weeks earlier.
And a question remains for him: Was this a one-time thing, or part of a growing trend?
King, based in Glennville, had heard about cockfighting in Tulare and Kings counties, and around Buttonwillow and Lamont. But this was the first time he’d heard about cockfighting in his territory east of Highway 65 and north of Granite Road.
“I suspect you’re going to see more of it,” said Eric Sakach, director of the West Coast office for the Humane Society of the United States. There has been a steady increase in cockfighting in California since 1998, he said, and he provided a list of press clippings about cockfighting busts.
“Part of the problem is that all of the states bordering California now make cockfighting a felony,” he said. It’s only a misdemeanor offense in California, he said, although the penalty for a second offense is up to $25,000.
The nonfelony status of the crime, King said, is why the 10 men were cited and then released.
“We almost depleted the entire north county’s response time” dealing with the bust, he said. And more people got away.
The event was clearly an organized and advertised cockfighting day, King said. One man had fresh cooked food and an ice chest full of beverages, and a portable arena made of canvas and vinyl had been set up.
The tipster who called police — King suspects it was someone who’d been burned at a previous event — estimated about 80 people would be there. But the deputies apparently got there early, King said.
King said he hasn’t been able to contact the property owner, but believes the owner was unaware of the cockfights.
Cockfighting has a history going back 3,000 years, Sakach said. The ancient Greeks started it, and the Romans introduced the gaffs — sharp tools attached to roosters to increase their lethality — that are still used today. For centuries, England was the home of cockfighting until it was outlawed there in 1835, Sakach said.
He said the usual argument from cockfighting enthusiasts is that the roosters would fight each other naturally. But the roosters are bred for fighting, their comb is amputated, and they are often injected with steroids or hormones.
“We’re not talking about anything that’s very natural,” he said.
“The principal reason for this to exist, and has been forever, is gambling,” he said.
And the activity has become increasingly associated with violence, he said. Two men were shot in Tulare County in 2005 in a dispute related to cockfighting.
King said he was out again this past Sunday looking for more activity, determined not to let cockfighting take root.
“Hopefully they don’t come back to my area,” he said. “Let them go somewhere else.”