Animal Wellness Action Urges Felony Animal Cruelty Charges After Alleged Abandonment of Hundreds of Fighting Roosters in North Carolina

Wilkes County, N.C. — Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are urging North Carolina law enforcement authorities and prosecutors to pursue aggressive animal cruelty charges against alleged cockfighting trafficker Francisco Valadez after reports that hundreds of fighting roosters were apparently abandoned at his expansive property. 

Valadez’s Los Panchos Gamecock Farm has been the subject of an ongoing investigation by Animal Wellness Action and Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), and the groups released drone footage and still photographs of the huge gamefowl farm with hundreds of fighting roosters staked to individual tents in the open. The photos clearly revealed a major cockfighting complex, one of the biggest in North Carolina. The current action by law enforcement followed more recent tips and evidence provided by Animal Wellness Action. In a July 2024 cockfighting bust in Granville County, Sheriff Fountain released photos of the crime scene, and one photo showed a trailer featuring the logo of Los Panchos Gamecock Farm in Traphill, N.C.

Now, the owner of the Los Panchos Gamecock Farm has apparently abandoned the care of hundreds of birds without food and water, creating what Animal Wellness Action says is an additional and severe act of cruelty against animals already victimized by the cockfighting industry.

“Birds like these all over North Carolina are bred into a system of violence and suffering, and now they appear to have been discarded and abandoned altogether,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “Cockfighters routinely treat animals as disposable commodities, and this case demonstrates the profound cruelty embedded in the culture of organized animal fighting.”

Animal Wellness Action is urging prosecutors to pursue not only cockfighting-related offenses but also hundreds of separate counts of animal cruelty tied to the alleged abandonment and neglect of the animals. “By allegedly abandoning hundreds of birds, this breeder left local authorities and animal welfare responders with an enormous burden,” said Pacelle.

The organization noted that fighting birds are commonly subjected to mutilations, including the removal of combs and wattles and the trimming of spurs for the attachment of knives or gaffs used in fights. Authorities in cockfighting investigations across the country frequently uncover weapons, narcotics, gambling activity, and dead or severely injured birds alongside fighting implements.

“Animal fighting operations are not isolated acts of cruelty—they are criminal enterprises that normalize violence and lawlessness,” said Pacelle. “Anyone who abandons hundreds of living animals after profiting from their suffering should be held fully accountable under the law.”

North Carolina’s anti-cockfighting law has strong provisions, but it must be fortified, including for possessing animals for fighting purposes. “Animal Wellness Action has been investigating illegal cockfighting in North Carolina since 2020. We’ve learned about the people who have built a criminal syndicate driving cockfights inside and outside of North Carolina,” added Pacelle. “This crime network, partly organized by the North Carolina Gamefowl Breeders Association, must be disbanded. It not only threatens the well-being of animals but the safety of our communities. Gambling, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and other criminal conduct are routinely commingled with animal fighting.”

Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy continue to advocate for stronger enforcement of state and federal anti-cockfighting laws, including the federal Animal Welfare Act and related prohibitions on trafficking fighting animals across state and national borders. Animal Wellness Action is urging Congress to pass the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act (H.R. 3946 and S. 1454) bipartisan legislation designed to strengthen federal enforcement against animal fighting.

The FIGHT Act would:

• Ban live and online gambling on animal fights
• Prohibit the shipment of fighting animals through the mail
• Enhance criminal forfeiture provisions
• Empower citizen suits to obtain court injunctions to dismantle fighting rings

“Local law enforcement is doing critical work, but they need stronger federal backing,” Pacelle said. “The FIGHT Act would give authorities the tools they need to shut down these operations and prevent them from reconstituting elsewhere.”

The organizations emphasized that animal fighting is both an animal welfare crisis and the front edge of a crime wave in our communities.