GILROY
– Law-enforcement and animal-control officers have long
suspected cockfighting was alive and well in the rural South Valley
underground, but it’s been years since they had a conviction to
prove it.
GILROY – Law-enforcement and animal-control officers have long suspected cockfighting was alive and well in the rural South Valley underground, but it’s been years since they had a conviction to prove it.
Now, however, two recent busts in Morgan Hill and San Martin appear to have unearthed the bloody sport, in which roosters are trained to fight each other to the death.
“They’re out there,” said rural crimes deputy Dino Diaz, of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s not a lot, but one is too many because it’s illegal.”
In both seizures, investigators stumbled upon the fighting roosters while serving search warrants for other illicit materials.
On Aug. 1, sheriff’s deputies raided a marijuana farm they had been monitoring southwest of Morgan Hill, at Sycamore Avenue and Armsby Lane. Amid the 4,000 pot plants they expected to find, they were surprised to find more than 150 cocks, plus fighting paraphernalia such as razor-sharp metal gaffs that attach to the birds’ feet, scales for weighing the birds and drugs that appeared to be rooster steroids, police said.
On July 22, the Regional Auto Theft Task Force turned up at least 66 roosters – again complete with fighting gear – at two locations at Stevens Court in San Martin and Diana Avenue in Morgan Hill. The task force was searching for a stolen tractor, which they found being repainted by a man whom they arrested. They arrested another person on suspicion of cruelty to animals.
Burden of proof
Proving in court that roosters were used for fighting can be difficult, Diaz said, but if the paraphernalia isn’t evidence enough, both sets of recovered roosters had severe scarring on their bellies, believed to be from organized fighting. In addition, RATTF Lt. Dale Morgan said the roosters’ feet and plumage were cut in a way typical of fighting birds.
In the sheriff’s case, five adults and three boys have been charged with drug-related offenses, but the District Attorney’s Office has yet to file cockfighting charges.
There hasn’t been a cockfighting-related arrest in two years, and that one, which Diaz also investigated, didn’t result in a conviction.
“The hardest thing to prove is criminal intent,” Diaz said.
This time, however, the evidence is much stronger.
“The task force and the sheriff’s office did a good job, and they’ve got a good case,” said Philip Jewitt, program manager of the county animal shelter in San Martin. “They were very thorough in their investigation.”
A number of birds destroyed
The 150 roosters deputies found are still on the farm, except for three taken as evidence, Diaz said. They are being cared for by residents who weren’t arrested.
The RATTF, however, handed their 66 roosters over to county Animal Control officers, who killed the birds the same day they were found, according to Jewitt.
Diaz said he was surprised to hear these roosters were killed. It’s his belief that this shouldn’t happen without a court order.
Morgan, however, said, “You don’t leave them there. If they’re there, they’re being tortured to death. You want to get them away from being tortured, even if they have to be euthanized.”
Jewitt said there is nothing Animal Control can do with fighting roosters except destroy them.
“It’s not like you can rehabilitate them and put them on a farm,” he said. “They’ll start killing all the chickens.”
Fighting to the death
With the ankle razors aiding the already vicious roosters, cockfighting matches don’t last long. A fight can last as little as 30 seconds, and one rarely goes over 10 minutes, according to Diaz.
Before each match is a weigh-in, at which spectators compare the birds’ records and place bets. As a general rule, opposing birds can’t be more than four ounces apart in weight, Diaz said.
A trained fighting rooster sells for between $200 and $500, depending on its lineage, according to Diaz.
Diaz said he suspects that, while the roosters were being raised and trained in the South Valley, the cockfighting tournaments are being held in more rural areas, farther from law-enforcement patrols.
Nevertheless, he asks locals residents to keep their ears peeled for large gatherings of cheering fans, with the sounds of roosters fighting and commentators calling the action.
“That would give me enough to go out and investigate cockfighting,” he said.
Jewitt said he suspects there are still many cockfighting operations in these parts.
“It’s just a matter of time before the authorities get a hold of them, too,” he said.
Morgan, however, said deputies will probably never snuff out cockfighting completely.
“I don’t think the sheriffs office really has the personnel to really cover all of the rural area,” he said. “It’s like drugs. You can’t arrest just a couple dealers and expect that to be it.”
