144 arrested at Tennessee cockfight (One of Nation's Largest)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/13/cockfight.arrest.ap/index.html

Law enforcement agents raided an illegal cockfight and arrested 144 people attending what one official said may have been one of the nation's largest such gatherings.

Several SWAT teams, helicopters and dozens of state troopers participated in the raid Saturday on the sprawling Del Rio Cockfight Pit. They seized about $40,000 in cash and killed more than 300 roosters.

"Reputedly, this was the largest cockfight in the United States," said District Attorney Al Schmutzer Jr. "It was becoming open and notorious, and you just can't stand back and let something operate like that in the community."

The 144 were each charged with being a spectator to cockfighting, a misdemeanor in Tennessee. If convicted, they face up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a $2,500 fine.

The Cocke County High School mascot is the "Fightin' Cock"

:) Always a source of mirth and merriment here in Upper East Tennessee.

cocke county has a rep as being a prime source of killer weed in tn.

die birds, die. of course, that's what they do when they're fighting...

These are the attack pit bulls of the bird world. They'll kill anything they come in contact with that's near their size.

I know. I have a fight stag. I rescued him before he was in his first fight, but he has to stay in a pen by himself. He's very violent...even attacks me when I feed him.

If they love fights to the death so much.

144 people. Must've been some big cocks with that kind of crowd.

I wonder if a guy's ever been killed by his own cock.

It could attack someone

But I'd have it on a leash, just like that guy

La petit mort, as our French friends say.

sorry!

....:rofl: :rofl:

gambling these days, and yet...they are compelled to throw down money to watch two animals fight to the death? Jeebus.

wants to draw some comparison with US presidential elections.

But I'll refrain.

If you are not from a culture that enjoys cockfighting, you probably won't understand.

These people are not being counted in the monthly employment numbers!

What's WRONG with you people! SOMEONE, CALL Vice President Cheney NOW!




:silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly:

That's gotta be good for the overall GDP.

Speaks volumes doesn't it? :hide:

Maybe we need a couple to stir up the hen houses in Washington.

One of them even goes by the pseudonym DICK

When ever there is a dick and bush involved...Someone is gonna get fucked!!

If I'm not mistaken, didn't she sponsor a bill to ban this cruelty in the few areas where it is still legal - I seem to remember it is in Oklahoma?

It's now only legal in Louisiana and New Mexico.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1356106,00.html

In Oklahoma, the 48th state to ban the sport since Massachusetts did so 168 years ago, more than 40 pits, including some that regularly used to seat 1,000 spectators, have closed, said James Tally, president of the state game bird breeders' association.

'A lot of people will go out of business or be badly affected,' he said. 'There are the feed companies, hardware stores and motels. There has been no cockfighting in Oklahoma since April, and since then takings at a motel near here have been down about $10,000 a month.'

Um...boo hoo.

There's a good article about Hillary here, called Chickening Out: The Wall Street Journal would rather endorse cockfighting than be fair to a Clinton, by Joe Moran.

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2001/cockfight.html

to start fighting with their cocks. Can't we all just get along.....

I want to watch the newspeople try to report this with a straight face. :rofl:

and "tradition" as being much of the reason that they participate in such barbaric, cruel games.

That sucks but I guess they wouldn't be able to place them in good homes. They are even getting rid of their no-kill shelter in Knoxville. Animals in East TN hardly have a chance


http://roadhomerescue.org


This guy's organization is not able to pay the bills and he is closing.

I know. I rescued one.

That sounds like a *great* place. I'd never heard of that type of shelter before.

http://www.roadhomerescue.org/

Road Home Animal Rescue has been quietly serving the animals of domestic-violence victims in Tennessee for three years. Except for when our rescues are of such a horrific nature that we make state and national news, we survive out of the kindness of private donors and yard and bake sales.
snip

Due to the nature of our rescues we have been cussed, shot at, spit on and threatened. Not the ideal glamour job. We have saved over 1000 animals on a budget less than a pair of Paris Hilton's earrings.

Every year women and children throughout the United States are injured or killed because they did not want to leave behind a cherished family pet and virtually no Women's Center will allow them to bring animals. Most of these domestic-violence victims have suffered from years of isolation, as their abusers dismantled their lives, including separating them from family, friends and financial resources. When they have an opportunity to flee they want to take everyone including the four-legged victims that often have been the only friend these victims have had. These animals frequently arrive abused and scared, but we take them in to our small park-like shelter and slowly teach them that not all people are bad and they are loved here.

"My first client (as a counselor at a women’s center in Wisconsin) came in very apologetic and said, ‘I have to go home.’ When I tried to tell her that she didn’t have to go home, she said, ‘No, you don’t understand." She pulled out of her purse a couple of pictures and handed them to me without comment. They were pictures that her mother had forwarded to her that her husband had sent to the mother…They were pictures of him chopping off the ears of her dog with gardening shears. She said, ‘I have to go home…If I want to save my dog’s life and the lives of the other animals on the farm, I have to go home.’ I didn’t have any answers for her. I didn’t have any way of helping her…We never heard from her again." (Ann Quinlisk, 1997 – cited in Lerner <1998>)

He is either already closed or closing. I couldn't reach him by email.
His cause was so noble.
:-(

Yeah, they really helped out those gamebirds all right. They just killed them. That will really improve their quality of life.

because they have been bred and trained to do nothing but fight. I have a game stag that I rescued. He has to live out his days in complete isolation. I can't even get near him when I feed him, because he attacks me.

All cocks (roosters, male chickens, whatever you want to call them) live only to fight and to f---. They don't have to live their lives in complete isolation, but certainly you wouldn't have them live with another male. No more than you would put two Siamese Fighting Fish together. Have a few hens in there with the male if you think he's lonely. If you don't want baby chicks, pick up the eggs regularly. I'm told chicken eggs are good eatin' -- in fact I've seen 'em sold in stores. The hens if you train them young enough can be sweet pets, they all have personalities.

Seriously I used to keep chickens, and the only reason more people don't is because of bossy neighborhood codes and home owners association and stupid snobby attitudes toward chickens.

Be that as it may, mostly the only people who care enough to invest the time in gamecocks are the people who fight them. So people who don't care about these birds, don't know these birds, have no experience with these birds...are telling the people who have lived and worked with these birds all their lives how these birds should live and die.

What is the goal here? Extinction of all the fighting breeds?

It just isn't right. Chicken psychology isn't human psychology. I'm not saying put spurs on the birds, no, of course you shouldn't. I wouldn't even personally fight my birds. But if these old breeds are to continue, people who fight them are the ones who will breed and maintain them.

The busybodies will just kill them all.

These are magnificent birds. I don't want them wiped out. Yeah, I have issues with cockfighting and especially where it's illegal and underground fighting/smuggling leads to the spread of disease that affects all birds. Like the huge, huge, huge Newcastle's outbreak probably linked to smuggled fighting cocks. But the answer to the problem isn't just to say, "OK, if we kill all these birds, fine, they won't cause us any problems any more."

They are beautiful birds, and he's a sorry motherf*cker for letting them fight and die like this. I wonder if some of his birds were at this event. Maybe he was there. If so, hopefully his chickenbutt got arrested.

They will take my cock when they pry my cold dead fingers from around it ;)

"John Goodwin, of the Humane Society of the United States, who took part in the raid,"

Since whne did the Humane Society become a law enforcement agency ?

I can't say I entirely disagree because in some situations it is well to have people there on the scene who know how to handle abused animals.

However, I know of situations where the Humane Society has demonstrated a complete ignorance of how to handle the birds in question and have actually done more harm than good -- as seems to have happened in this case. If they had closed their eyes, OK, some illegal gambling would have happened, but birds would still be alive.

So I'm conflicted about it. They didn't seem to know diddly about how to handle or rescue parrots either, back in the day. You don't kill a loved or valuable or rare bird just because it refuses to behave like a dog.