Cock-fight leads to 36 arrests

2010-01-28 / Front Page

$29,650 in cash also seized

BY JILL BALLINGER GAZETTE EDITOR

THIS ROOSTER WAS INJURED DURING THE COCK-FIGHT THAT WAS RAIDED SUNDAY. A Sunday afternoon cockfight ended with a total of 36 arrests, 70 impounded chickens and $29,650 in cash by Tuesday morning. An anonymous call about the incident tipped Mariposa County Sheriff’s Deputies to the activity on Heritage Lane, in the Yaqui Gulch area.

A patrol unit and an animal control officer responded to the call and found a locked gate. They headed in on foot and were met by the “ranch hand.” He said he was hosting a barbecue.

At the same time officers were talking with the man, people started to flee a structure near the back of the property. Officers were able to quickly establish that a cockfight was in fact taking place.

Sheriff Brian Muller said patrol units arrived and began searching surrounding properties for the people who were involved. They got some help from the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Fish and Game and CAL FIRE. That day, authorities arrested 33 people, only one of them being a Mariposa resident. The self-described “ranch hand” was Ivan

PICTURED ARE JUST TWO OF MORE THAN 70 ROOSTERS THAT WERE IMPOUNDED BY ANIMAL CONTROL. THE BIRDS ARE BEING CARED FOR IN A SECURE LOCATION. GAZETTE PHOTO DAN TUCKER Reyes, 28.

Area residents received a “CodeRed” message from the sheriff’s office advising them to secure their homes and vehicles while law enforcement was looking for suspects.

Animal control officers seized 80 animals associated with the event. Due to severe injuries, on of them had to be euthanized at the scene. Muller said the property was home to a virtual zoo of horses, ponies, exotic birds and goats. All appeared to be getting proper care.

The owner of the property, Rafael Conejo, reportedly lives in Atwater and was not arrested as he apparently was not at the house during the cock-fight.

The arrests continued on Monday. Three men were contacted by a deputy on Yaqui Gulch Road near Live Oak Road in the afternoon. One was carrying a rooster. Later that day, two more were picked up near the Oaks in Cathey’s Valley.

Neighbors are outraged at the activity. “It’s disturbing to have constant traffic zooming in and out past our property all hours of the day and night because of these valley people,” one neighbor said. “Quite frankly, we’d like to see them all leave so we can have our clean and peaceful country life back.”

Another anonymous neighbor was repulsed. “This is sick animal cruelty and the people behind this, watching and gambling (on) a slow, vicious, bloody death for sport are extremely sick humans.”

This is not the first big cock-fighting bust in Mariposa County. In the late 1970s, law enforcement busted another in very similar fashion. It was Superbowl Sunday, and was raining, Muller remembered. That day, deputies took in about 100 people.

Muller said that 30 arrrests in one day is high, but not a record. He remembers a time when his department would round up 40 or 50 a night during the fair.

Two of the people arrested on Sunday and Monday were juveniles. One was a woman, who listed her occupation as a “dog groomer.” She is not associated with the local dog grooming businesses.

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What do they call it when one

Submitted by MJones (not verified) on Thu, 2010-02-11 15:04.

What do they call it when one group of people dictate morals in order to control culture, heritage and traditions of those they dont agree with, I forgot.

you know it is a shame that

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2010-02-07 13:33.

you know it is a shame that this country the greatest country in the FREE world would alloy men to fight in cages and kill one another but put a working class man in prison for fighting a rooster. a rooster that would fight to the death all on his own, no man makes a rooster fight that is nature. my uncle died storming a beach in normandy he died for us to have the right to pursue happiness and to have freedom of speech the right to keep and own a fire arm. he gave his life for even for the animal activest to speek freely. so dont tell me that you are going to make me a felon for fighting a rooster when i have never broke a law or even gotten a speeding ticket YOU are going to make me a felon. think of your family who has fought and lost there lives for you to have freedom.

Why is it people freak out

Submitted by mike chambers (not verified) on Tue, 2010-02-02 05:12.

Why is it people freak out and want to give a man life in prison ,for fighting a rooster ,then at the same time ,sell them a license to hunt ,people will go coon hunting let there hounds run a coon up a tree ,then shoot in in the feet intill he falls from the tree ,then the fight is on ,yall ever seen a walker dog trying to kill a coon ,most the time it take 3 to 4 to kill him ,then they cut his tail off leaave him in the woods ,then on the same clock they sell a license to deer hunt ,they white men can take there 6 year old son and teach him to shoot a deer with a 300 mag ,cut his head of and put it on his wall ,George Bush loved deer hunting ,but he signed a bill to make it a felony for us to fight a rooster ,most rich people like lobesters ,they pick them out of a tank ,you know the one they want ,then they take him alive and put him in boiling water ,and most of the lawmakers of this Country like to dove or quail hunt ,they shoot them with buck or bird shot ,some they just wound some they kill ,after they cook them ,they get one bite of food ,this is America ,we are suppost to beleave in freedom for all ,not just the chosing few ,beleave me its not just Mexcans ,we were fighting chickens way before yall opend the gates ,PETA AND THE HSUS want us the people of the US to stop doing anything ,half the people fighting for our Country have game roosters ,leave them alone ,or stop all hunting ,fishing ,or anything us Country boys like ,and lets just all do like them people in Hollywood do ,walk around telling people how to live ,while we dress up like faggets ,men dressing like women ,gays adopting babys ,if i take my sons to a cockfight they would take them from me ,if my brother takes his son to a coon hunt ,people says they fine folks ,and people wonder why our boys want join yalls army ,what have they got to fight for so men can marry men ,and you can kill unborne babys ,give them cockfighters 200 year or death ,but sell license to people to hunt them coons and deer ,thats not right make cockfighting legal like the rest of the sportsman .

I am amused that Americans

Submitted by William G. Carter (not verified) on Mon, 2010-02-01 09:00.

I am amused that Americans would get so upset at Cock Fighting, when the way that chickens are treated in commercial captivity borders on torture. (No, I am not a card-carrying PETA member. In the 1980's, I just did some work for a chicken farmer in Cotati in exchange for a small travel trailer). First off, FIVE of them are kept in a cage that is big enough for ONE chicken. And then they are fed Speed (there is stuff in their feed to make them lay eggs faster). (Just imagine being fed speed, and confined to a space in which you can barely move). The real torture begins when the farmer is done with them. A rolling cart is brought in, in which two half-sheets of plywood form an A-Frame. There are rows of 8-inch wires stapled to the plywood, and the chickens are brought out three at a time, carried upside down by the legs and wired upside-down-in-threes to the rolling A-Frame cart. The cart is wheeled out to a waiting Vacuum Truck that has a chicken sized hose. One-At-A-Time, the chickens are put in front of the tremendous suction of the hose, and there is usually a surprised gasping "CLUCK" from the chicken as the powerful vacuum emits a loud "BBRRRRAAAPP" and the chicken is violenty sucked into the truck. Are there chairs inside for the chickens? chaise lounges? Nope- they are just a mass of struggling fowl (stoned on speed) in a dark space stacked one on top of each other. Next is the drive to the soup factory up on River Road. Once there, they are taken out one at a time, and wired upside-down to a conveyor-assembly that carries them way up high and then transports them down through a gas chamber which kills them. But are we done with them yet? Nope. Next the conveyor carries them through a liquid which dissolves their feathers. I'm not making this up. Think about this the next time you open a can of chicken soup. Or the next time you think that Cock Fighting is the cruelest thing you can do to a chicken.