![\"Cockfighting](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-12-06_20-52-25-692-e1765083188729.jpg?ssl=1\")
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<\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] founder Steve Hindi,\u00a0 having reported to the Ector County sheriff\u2019s department a cockfight in progress at an undisclosed location near Odessa,\u00a0 Texas,\u00a0 on December 6,\u00a0 2025 at about 3:45 p.m. anticipated yet another of a series of major cockfighting busts would soon go down.<\/p>\n Videotaping the scene from a drone flying at the legally required distance from the cockfighters\u2019 private property,\u00a0 using a powerful distance lens to pull in the details while a wide angle lens established the drone\u2019s position,\u00a0 Hindi could see and count the Ector County sheriff\u2019s department vehicles as they arrived.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Two hours later,\u00a0 Hindi disgustedly told ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> that the sheriff\u2019s department,\u00a0 despite arriving in force,\u00a0 had done nothing:\u00a0 no arrests,\u00a0 no confiscations of roosters or cockfighting paraphernalia,\u00a0 a written report supposedly filed,\u00a0 but no action actually taken,\u00a0 Hindi said he was told by a sheriff\u2019s deputy.<\/p>\n Hindi understood that someone had told the Ector County sheriff\u2019s department that third-party video evidence could not be used to obtain a search warrant,\u00a0 or could not be admitted in court,\u00a0 or some such cockamamie yarn contradicting both the letter of Texas law and recent Showing Animals Respect & Kindness experience in reporting cockfights to the authorities in several other Texas counties.<\/p>\n Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle also admitted to a bit of frustration in anti-cockfighting efforts,\u00a0 in a December 1,\u00a0 2025 email to supporters,\u00a0 sent again several times during the next week.<\/p>\n <\/a> Cockfighting gaffs.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201c<\/strong>After our investigators uncovered that Etsy was illegally allowing its platform to be used for trafficking cockfighting implements\u2014razor-sharp weapons strapped to birds\u2019 legs to intensify bloodletting and cruelty\u2014the company responded and removed the contraband,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cBut our investigation uncovered an even more consequential lawbreaker: \u00a0eBay. \u00a0We alerted executives and lawyers at the Silicon Valley e-commerce giant. \u00a0They are refusing to act, \u00a0out of either stubbornness or indifference.<\/p>\n \u201cMind you,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said, \u00a0\u201ctrafficking in cockfighting weapons is a federal felony and also a crime in California, \u00a0where eBay is headquartered.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Except for the issues in Ector County,\u00a0 Texas,\u00a0 and with eBay,\u00a0 Hindi and Pacelle both cautiously admit to flying higher lately than tethered gamefowl ever go.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cockfighting \u2018season\u2019 traditionally opens right around Thanksgiving,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle explained, \u00a0\u201cafter the roosters have completed their molt.<\/p>\n But \u201cIn recent days,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle summarized, \u00a0\u201cthe Center for a Humane Economy and our partners at Showing Animals Respect & Kindness gave the cockfighters a taste of what\u2019s in store for them this cockfighting season.\u201d<\/p>\n The string of busts began on November 16,\u00a0 2025 in Ascencion Parish,\u00a0 Louisiana,\u00a0 television station WBRZ reported from Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cAccording to parish jail rosters,\u201d\u00a0 WBRZ said,\u00a0 \u201c25-year-old Jose Perez, \u00a028-year-old Bryan Saldana, \u00a039-year-old Filiberto Banda-Pena, \u00a0and 33-year-old Oscar Fregaso-Solorzano were all booked for one count each of organized cockfighting.<\/p>\n \u201cPerez received an additional 36 counts of possession of a cockfighting animal,\u201d\u00a0 WBRZ added,\u00a0 and was held on $360,000 bond,\u00a0 after 34 live roosters and two dead roosters were found on the premises.<\/p>\n Saldana and Banda-Pena \u201cposted a $50,000 bond,\u201d\u00a0 WBRZ continued.<\/p>\n \u201cFregaso-Solorzano had an additional charge as a fugitive from another state. Information about that was not immediately available.\u201d\u00a0 ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> also failed to find the details.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The nationwide string of cockfighting busts continued in Connecticut,\u00a0 reported New Haven Register<\/em> staff writers Peter Yankowski and Brian Zahn,\u00a0 with seven arrests on November 23,\u00a0 2025 in neighboring West Haven,\u00a0 just a few miles from Pacelle\u2019s boyhood home in New Haven.<\/p>\n \u201cWest Haven police chief Joseph Perno said officers were dispatched following an anonymous complaint, \u00a0and what they found was like nothing city police had seen before,\u201d\u00a0 Yankowski and Zahn recounted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe responding officer reported seeing \u2018rooster spurs and blood\u2019 on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n A crowd estimated \u201cat more than 100 then spotted the police officer in their midst and bolted, police reports said, \u00a0with people \u2018seen scattering in all different directions and jumping fences onto other properties.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The seven suspects who were apprehended,\u00a0 Yankowski and Zahn said,\u00a0 were \u201ccharged with cruelty to animals and other offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n All seven suspects,\u00a0 consistent with most other recent cockfighting busts outside of Appalachia,\u00a0 had Hispanic surnames:\u00a0 \u00a0Jose Jiminez-Ortiz,\u00a0 62, \u00a0of New Britain,\u00a0 Connecticut;\u00a0 Andrade Catana, 52, of New Windsor, \u00a0New York; \u00a0Kelvin Quituizaca-Martinez, \u00a032, \u00a0of Middletown, New York; \u00a0Luciano Ramos, \u00a060, \u00a0of Newburgh, \u00a0New York; \u00a0Jesus Ventura-Reyes, 60, \u00a0of Brooklyn, New York; \u00a0and Jose Gonzalez, 58, \u00a0of West Haven,\u00a0 Connecticut.<\/p>\n Continued Yankowski and Zahn,\u00a0 \u201cOne of the men arrested told police that another of the individuals charged was living above the garage and had rented the space.\u00a0 The man told police the people running the event had food, \u00a0water, \u00a0and beer for sale inside, \u00a0and that some people had been smoking marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Jose Jiminez-Ortiz was allegedly identified as the door man,\u00a0 who collected entry fees ranging from $25 to $50 from the other attendees.<\/p>\n Yankowski and Zahn recalled previous Connecticut cockfighting busts in 2015 and in March 2024.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Four days later,\u00a0 according to Crime Watch Dallas<\/em>,\u00a0 Johnson County sheriff\u2019s deputies on November 27,\u00a0 2025 arrested 25 people and impounded 50 roosters at a \u201cTurkey Day 4 Roosters\u201d cockfight in Alvarado,\u00a0 Texas.<\/p>\n On November 28,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 the Collin County,\u00a0 Texas sheriff\u2019s office arrested eight people and impounded 55 live roosters,\u00a0 two dead roosters,\u00a0 and alleged cockfighting paraphernalia,\u00a0 reported the Farmersville Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n The same day,\u00a0 the Harris County sheriff\u2019s office \u201cuncovered a suspected illegal rooster-fighting and gambling operation inside a business officially listed as a barbershop\u201d on the northwest side of Houston,\u00a0 Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cAuthorities say they found at least 60 roosters used for fighting, \u00a0some alive and some dead. The sheriff\u2019s office noted that although the building is officially a barbershop, \u00a0no hair-cutting supplies were found,\u201d\u00a0 reported Chron.com<\/em> news editor Allyson Ackerman.<\/p>\n Four suspects were arrested.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Also on November 28, \u00a02025,\u00a0 \u201cafter receiving a call from Showing Animals Respect & Kindness,\u201d\u00a0 SHARK announced,\u00a0 \u201cWest Virginia state troopers entered a barn packed with nearly\u00a090 people\u00a0and\u00a0150 roosters.\u00a0 The moment officers walked in, \u00a0the crowd scattered. \u00a0The troopers cited the operator\u2019s wife,\u201d\u00a0 SHARK said, \u00a0and collected the identification of attendees to enable filing possible charges later.<\/p>\n \u201cThis disruption itself is significant, \u00a0as this pit has run for more 20 years,\u201d\u00a0 said the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness statement.<\/p>\n <\/a> Cockfighting venue near Bald Rock, Kentucky.<\/strong><\/em> SHARK founder Steve Hindi told ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> that he believes the cockfighting barn raided is owned,\u00a0 and the cockfights there arranged,\u00a0 by a descendant of the Hatfield family,\u00a0 notorious for their part in the Hatfield-vs.-McCoys family feud that raged from 1863 to 1891,\u00a0 resulting in at least 22 deaths.<\/p>\n The most recent conviction of a Hatfield for cockfighting of which ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> is aware came on August 22,\u00a0 2023,\u00a0 when according to the Lexington Herald-Leader<\/em>,\u00a0 Oakley \u201cWhitey\u201d Hatfield pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to sponsor and exhibit animals in a fighting venture,\u00a0 plus one charge of attending an animal fight.<\/p>\n Hatfield,\u00a0 one of nine people charged after a Kentucky State Police raid on the notorious Bald Rock cockpit in June 2021,\u00a0 was sentenced to serve one year and one day in jail, \u00a0and to pay a $1,000 fine.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The 2025 Thanksgiving week string of cockfighting busts concluded,\u00a0 reported Aubree B. Jennings and Natalie Wadas for KUTV in Provo,\u00a0 Utah,\u00a0 with the November 30,\u00a0 2025 arrests of seventeen suspects,\u00a0 the impoundment of 362 living roosters,\u00a0 and the discovery of 56 dead roosters at a site near Provo in Utah County.<\/p>\n The location \u201chad previously been reported for animal fighting in 2019, \u00a0according to arrest documents,\u201d\u00a0 Jennings and Wadas said.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficers got a warrant and flew a drone over the property, \u00a0which allegedly captured several people loading cages in and out of vehicles,\u201d\u00a0 Jennings and Wadas continued.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cThe dead chickens were found in a large room with benches, \u00a0score cards, \u00a0and a winning board with a list of individuals on it,\u201d\u00a0 Jennings and Wadas paraphrased from the arrest report.<\/p>\n \u201cAn adjacent room had several bottles of liquid with needles in them that are used to make the roosters more aggressive. \u00a0That room also contained several trophies that were labeled with various chicken related achievements,\u201d\u00a0 Jennings and Wadas added.<\/p>\n In a vehicle apprehended nearby,\u00a0 the police report detailed,\u00a0 \u201cwere razor claws for the roosters, \u00a0more aggression-inducing drugs, \u00a0and two roosters in a box.\u00a0 These objects and substances,\u00a0 \u00a0along with the dead roosters,\u00a0 show that they did not die a quick painless death.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Assessed Pacelle,\u00a0 \u201cThe latest drumbeat of arrests and the shutdown of cockfighting derbies build on the dramatic step-up in enforcement we stirred last season, \u00a0when we and our partners at SHARK helped take down key cockfighting leaders across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n Agreed Kevin Chambers,\u00a0 Oklahoma representative for Animal Wellness Action,\u00a0 \u201cEvery weekend we are looking for them.\u00a0 Today,\u201d\u00a0 Chambers mentioned on December 7,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 \u201cis the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission annual meeting in McAlester.\u00a0 Anthony Devore,\u00a0 the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission president [and cofounder],\u00a0 whom we caught at a cockfight last summer,\u00a0 announced he is stepping down to run for the State Representative seat being vacated by J.J. Humphrey,\u00a0 who is running for Lieutenant Governor.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission annual meeting is apparently taking place even though the organization itself has been legally dissolved.<\/p>\n (See OK Gamefowl Commission dissolved, top cock Devore criminally charged<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAt least 46 cockfighting suspects reportedly arrested<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nEctor County sheriff\u2019s office \u201cdid nothing\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\neBay continues selling cockfighting paraphernalia,\u00a0 Pacelle says<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThanksgiving week brought big busts<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFour suspects booked in Louisiana<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSeven suspects booked in Connecticut<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFood,\u00a0 water,\u00a0 & beer<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nTwo Texas busts in two days<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPit running for 20 years busted in West Virginia<\/h2>\n
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(SHARK photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nHatfield family<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSeventeen suspects in Provo,\u00a0 Utah<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nRoosters \u201cdid not die a quick painless death\u201d says cop<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cEvery weekend we are looking for them\u201d<\/h2>\n