AR-News: Major Cockfight Bust in Georgia

[Political Animal]

Hundreds arrested, jailed in cockfighting raid 

Barrow County 

By Lee Shearer 

lee.shearer at onlineathens.com 


 
   More than 200 people overflowed the Barrow County
and Winder jails after a raid on a Barrow County
cockfight Sunday afternoon, said Barrow County Sheriff
Joel Robinson.
   The two jails combined are built to hold about 100
people, but after about 230 were arrested, deputies
put some in a jail recreation area, others in visiting
rooms and still others in at least one courtroom in
the nearby courthouse.
   As of Monday afternoon, about 24 hours after the
raid, an estimated 100 people still remained to be
booked, Robinson said.
   Most of those arrested were charged with
misdemeanor animal cruelty, the sheriff said.
   Robinson said he did not know whether any felony
charges would result from the bust. Under Georgia law,
animal cruelty can be prosecuted as a felony if a
person ''knowingly or maliciously'' causes the death
or disfigurement of an animal.
   The bust culminated an eight-month investigation
that began with aneighbor's complaint and eventually
grew to include the FBI, Georgia Bureau of
Investigation, Athens-Clarke County police and other
police agencies, Robinson said.
   Initially, investigators thought the case was
solely a cockfighting investigation, but last week
heard that dogfighting was also being practiced at a
farm on Hancock Bridge Road, the sheriff said.
Investigators flew over in a helicopter Thursday and
were able to pick out what looked like eight to 10 dog
kennels, he added.
   Investigators had expected to book only about 100
people in the raid. Because so many more were arrested
than expected, by Monday afternoon law officers still
had not been able to execute the search warrants they
had carried with them to the farm off Georgia Highway
11 near the Jackson County line, Robinson said.
   About 93 cars were impounded and a large amount of
cash was seized - just how much is unknown, because it
hadn't all been counted as of Monday afternoon, he
said.
   Suspected gamblers included people from South
Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and even
California, judging from the tags on impounded
vehicles, Robinson said.
   Most of those arrested were Mexican immigrants, he
said.
   Although cockfighting is against the law in most of
the United States, it is legal in Mexico as well as
two of the United States, Louisiana and New Mexico.
   But polls show that like other Americans, most
Mexican-Americans are opposed to cockfighting, said
Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of the Humane
Society of the United States, the nation's largest
animal protection organization.
   Between 90 and 100 law enforcement officers
participated in the raid, Robinson said.
   ''It was very large-scale,'' Barrow County
Sheriff's Maj. Murray Kogod said.
   Law enforcement officers from 10 agencies spent
about six hours Sunday flushing out dozens of people
who fled into nearby woods after the raid began at
about 2 p.m.
   Authorities believed violent cockfights and
pit-bull fights were held at the 11-acre property on
most Sundays. Officers rescued more than a dozen
animals but found several others dead around the
property.
   In cockfighting, short knives or curved spikes are
attached to roosters' spurs before the birds are
placed together in a pit. The animals fight until one
can't go on, and the fights often result in the death
of one or both of the birds, Pacelle said. They are
often given stimulants to increase aggression before
the fight, he said.
   The raid was the second major gambling and animal
fighting bust in Georgia this year.
    The Associated Press contributed to this report.
    

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday,
April 20, 2004. 
Click here to return to story:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/042004/new_cockfight.shtml
 

 



	
		
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