Causecast

By Daniel González

The drugged-up roosters bred for fighting are outfitted with a metal blade tied to one ankle. They’re released inside a pen, where in a bloody battle of flashing wings and flying feathers, one or the other is left dead or dying – all for the amusement of screaming spectators and gamblers.

Cockfights have been banned in Arizona for more than a decade, but the recent discovery by police of several underground cockfighting operations in Phoenix shows that the blood sport still exists.

The fights typically take place in neighborhoods with large populations of immigrants from Mexico or other countries where cockfighting is popular and legal, authorities say.

The rash of cockfighting busts in Phoenix – four operations have been uncovered since December – corresponds with a flurry of similar raids around the country. Since the start of the year, the Humane Society of the United States has documented at least 28 cockfighting- related cases nationwide.

John Goodwin, the group’s manager of animal-fighting issues, said the spate of cockfights was the most he has seen in 12 years.

The poor economy, immigration trends and a growing police awareness of animal fighting are all possible factors behind the spike.

Authorities do not believe the recent arrests point to a resurgence in cockfighting. If anything, the blood sport has declined in popularity sharply since the late 1990s, when Arizona and other states began outlawing cockfights.

Immigration and cockfighting

Most immigrants from countries where cockfighting is popular do not embrace it.

“There are only a small number of people who support this form of animal cruelty,” Goodwin said.

Cockfighting is not limited to immigrants or certain ethnic groups. In some parts of the South, the majority of people associated with cockfighting are non-immigrant Whites, Goodwin said.

He and others attribute the recent flurry of cockfighting in Phoenix and other parts of the United States not just to immigration but also to police paying more attention to animal fighting, especially in the wake of the Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal.

Vick, a former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, is serving a 23-month prison sentence for his role in running a dog-fighting operation.

“Immigration is a contributing factor but not the sole factor. More attention is being paid by law enforcement,” said Randall Lockwood, senior vice president for the anti-cruelty field service of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Bans run up against long history

Arizona was among the first states to make cockfighting illegal.

Persons convicted of being involved in cockfighting operations or possessing cockfighting birds face felony charges and penalties of up to two years in prison and $150,000 in fines. Being a spectator at a cockfight in Arizona is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of $25,000.

All 50 states have now passed laws outlawing cockfighting, with New Mexico and Louisiana being the most recent.

Cockfighting can be traced back 4,000 years to the Indus Valley of modern-day India and Pakistan, spreading east to Southeast Asia and China and west to Persia, Greece, Rome and eventually to the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish and French colonists introduced cockfighting to the Americas.

“Cockfighting has always been in existence,” said Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, an anthropologist and chairman of the transborder-studies department at Arizona State University.

Several U.S. presidents, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, were “great cockfighting enthusiasts,” he said.

Cockfighting remains popular in Mexico and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in China and Southeast Asia, especially among males in rural areas and working-class neighborhoods, he said.

Roosters are fed vitamins

Roosters bred for cockfighting are fed vitamins and special meals, and their blood lines are carefully documented, Vélez-Ibáñez said.

“They are treated very well, but their ending is not very nice,” he said.

He believes there is a link between immigration and an upswing in cockfighting arrests around the nation.

“Every time you have immigrants or migrants from Mexico or the Caribbean or migrants from Southeast Asia,” you are going to see more cockfighting, Vélez-Ibáñez said. He estimated, however, that less than 10 percent of immigrants are involved in cockfighting.

The economic crisis, which has hit immigrant communities particularly hard, may also be driving an increase in cockfighting activity, he said.

“Anytime you have an economic downturn, you are going to find ways to make a buck,” Vélez-Ibáñez said.

The owner of a cockfighting operation discovered last year in Wittmann, a small town northwest of Phoenix, told sheriff’s deputies that he had charged spectators $10 admission to watch roosters fight. Sometimes, the man told deputies, he sold up to 100 tickets per event.

Other crimes lead police to rings

Police discovered several of the cockfighting operations in Phoenix while investigating other crimes, said Luis Samudio, a spokesman for Phoenix police.

On Jan. 5, police investigating a suspect in a home invasion and robbery searched a tire shop on East Broadway Road in south Phoenix and found 31 roosters and a ring that was used for cockfighting.

Three people arrested in connection with the investigation were in the country illegally, including one person with a felony conviction who had previously been deported and had re-entered the United States, police said.

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