Local Law Enforcement Allows Massive Assembly of Cockfighters to Escape After Animal Wellness Groups Uncover and Document Fighting Derby in Progress in Titus County Last Saturday

Mount Pleasant, TX — Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) and Animal Wellness Action expressed grave disappointment that the Titus County Sheriffs’ Office failed to request a search warrant to enter a cockfighting complex in Titus County, Texas, after the two non-profit organizations documented the presence of the animal fighting venture there last Saturday, March 15.

On that date, sheriffs’ deputies did respond in force when alerted to the illegal animal fighting derby at the home of Tim Thompson, but the cockfighters locked the gate upon the arrival of the police, requiring the law enforcement officers to obtain a warrant to enter, gather evidence, and make arrests. A senior law enforcement officer, who was not at the crime scene, appears to have unilaterally determined there was not probable cause of a crime in progress. It turns out that the officer is a Facebook friend of the property owner, who maintains two massive gamecock farms and a fighting pit at the property.

“Something smells rotten in Titus County, and it is not the decaying bodies of birds slashed and stabbed to death at a cockfighting pit there,” said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK, who was on the scene at the cockfighting derby. “Sheriffs’ deputies were ready to take action, but a senior official stymied their efforts and put the community at risk by not seeking a warrant to arrest the perpetrators of these animal cruelty crimes.”

SHARK obtained a schedule of fighting events to occur at the private property near Mount Pleasant. Animal Wellness Action and SHARK investigators, acting on that tip, investigated the site and uncovered a major cockfighting complex, with a fighting pit, two gamecock farms, and dozens of cockhouses, which temporarily house fighting birds.

“There’s no doubt that a cockfight was in progress on March 15, and it’s a dereliction of duty for law enforcement not to raid such an enterprise,” said Kevin Chambers, the Oklahoma state director for Animal Wellness Action and a cockfighting expert who was at the scene of the crime. “Law enforcement had everything set up for them to conduct one of the biggest cockfighting arrest actions in decades in Texas. That effort was squandered by a road-blocking action by a senior law enforcement officer.”

“Cockfighting is barbaric and it is always bound up with other crimes,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “Letting the cockfighters jump in their vehicles and take off was an incredible lost opportunity to nab more than 200 people who had assembled for a singular criminal purpose: to participate in a massive animal fighting derby, forbidden under Texas and United States law. We hope that the Texas Department of Public Safety opens an investigation and that they charge the property owner. While they are at it, they should investigate any links between the senior law enforcement official who declined to seek a warrant and the owner of the property where the fight was conducted.”

The event in Titus County was one of the biggest cockfighting derbies the organizations have uncovered in recent years. Animal Wellness Action and SHARK provided law enforcement with the fight schedule, still pictures and video of the gamecock farms with hundreds of tethered birds, cockhouses full of birds delivered for the Saturday morning fights, and a structure at the center of it all that was the cockfighting pit. Once law enforcement showed up, cockfighters scattered — also a tell-tale sign of their illegal conduct.

“Any first-year cop, presented with the evidence we had, would know in a split second that there was a cockfight in progress,” added Hindi. “We couldn’t have done more to set up a law enforcement action.

Texas law enforcement have stepped up their game in addressing illegal fights. In Texas, there has been a steady drumbeat of cockfighting interdictions, including ones in Galveston, where nearly 100 birds were seized in what appears to have been a large-scale cockfighting operation; in Potter County, where more than 160 roosters were seized and, according to the sheriff, “many” participants were “unlawfully in the United States”; in San Jacinto, where suspects were “expected to face multiple felony charges, ranging from animal cruelty, cockfighting, illegal gambling, unlawful weapon possession, organized crime, and federal firearm possession by illegal immigrants”; in Cherokee, where two dozen arrested on similar charges, and in Lynn County, where the sheriff brought felony charges “because of organized criminal activity.” Earlier this month, the El Paso County Sheriffs’ Office obtained a warrant and arrested a man for having a collection of cockfighting paraphernalia, along with 16 roosters trained to fight.

There have been a series of interdictions at the border, including a law enforcement action where officers “made an unusual discovery, roosters deeply hidden within passenger vehicles,” according to press releases. Border Patrol and Customs seized this shipment of fighting implements from Mexico City. On February 17, CBP officers working at the Paso Del Norte international crossing seized 180 rooster gaffs and 7,500 Viroton animal steroid tablets from a traveler arriving from Mexico; CBP seized the merchandise and issued the traveler a $2,000 penalty.

Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are advocating for passage of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, which has been endorsed by the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas and dozens of county sheriffs, including those on or near the border. Officials there say it is critical legislation that addresses a pervasive and deeply troubling issue: the rampant and barbaric practice of animal fighting, which is inextricably linked to a host of other serious crimes.

United States-based cockfighters are deeply involved in a massive trade with Mexican cartels that control many major cockfighting venues south of the border. This illicit activity is creating a separate border crisis centered around animal trafficking, posing serious threats to both Americans and Mexicans.

“I consider passing the FIGHT Act in Congress as urgent a priority as we have at Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy,” Pacelle said.

U.S. Representatives from Texas who cosponsored the FIGHT Act last Congress are Jasmine Crockett, D-30; Lloyd Doggett, D-37; Lizzie Fletcher, D-7; Lance Gooden, R-5; Sylvia Garcia, D-29, and Troy Nehls, R-22. Texas’s senior Senator, Republican John Cornyn, is a cosponsor of the Senate bill led by Cory Booker, D-N.J., and John Kennedy, R-La.

A fact sheet on the FIGHT Act can be found here.