Federal and local investigators uncover several thousand fighting roosters, training rings and cockfighting implements at 10-acre property
MIAMI — Animal Wellness Action today praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, and Miami-Dade Animal Services for their coordinated response to a massive cockfighting operation uncovered on a 10-acre property in southwest Miami-Dade County.
According to law-enforcement reports, FBI agents searching the property Saturday as part of a separate federal investigation discovered evidence of an apparent cockfighting operation and contacted the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Organized Crime Bureau’s Vice and Intelligence Squad subsequently obtained a search warrant and, working with Miami-Dade Animal Services, searched the property.
Investigators reported finding several thousand gamefowl roosters, numerous enclosed cockfighting training rings, and an array of equipment associated with preparing birds for fighting, including fighting spurs, rooster agitators, syringes, medications, vitamins, and training equipment.
“This was a determined, coordinated law-enforcement response to a criminal operation built around the barbaric enterprise of cockfighting,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “We commend the FBI for dismantling this operation, and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and Animal Services for following up on an investigation and interdiction of an operation of extraordinary scale.”
Carlos Rafael Lezcano, 52, was arrested and faces charges including animal cruelty with intent to injure or kill, possessing animals for fighting, tampering with physical evidence, and resisting an officer without violence, according to authorities. The allegations have not yet been adjudicated.
“The discovery of several thousand fighting roosters on a single property should dispel any notion that cockfighting is simply a spontaneous contest between a few individuals,” said Pacelle. “This is a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar criminal syndicate. Law enforcement should follow the evidence wherever it leads and identify every person involved in supplying, financing, transporting or fighting these animals.”
The Miami-Dade case also appears to illustrate a connection that Animal Wellness Action has repeatedly emphasized: large-scale gamefowl breeding and cockfighting are not separate enterprises. The breeding and conditioning of large numbers of gamefowl is the beginning of the supply chain that sustains organized cockfighting. The combination reportedly found at this property — thousands of gamefowl together with training rings and cockfighting equipment — underscores why investigators should examine gamefowl breeding operations as potential components of the broader cockfighting industry when the evidence warrants it.
Animal Wellness Action has urged federal law enforcement agencies across the country to make greater use of federal animal-fighting laws to target not only individual fighting events but also the larger networks and infrastructure that enable animal fighting to operate.
Federal law prohibits sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal-fighting venture and prohibits possessing, training, selling, purchasing, transporting, delivering or receiving animals for purposes of participation in an animal-fighting venture under circumstances covered by federal law.
Animal Wellness Action also commended the investigators, deputies, agents, animal-control personnel and other professionals involved in executing the searches and managing a scene involving thousands of animals.
Florida Law Enforcement Backs the FIGHT Act
The Florida Sheriffs’ Association, representing sheriffs throughout Florida’s 67 counties, has endorsed the FIGHT Act and urged Congress to strengthen federal enforcement against dogfighting and cockfighting. The Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, representing Florida’s 20 elected state attorneys and more than 2,000 assistant state attorneys serving all 67 counties, has also endorsed the measure. The National Sheriffs’ Association and National District Attorneys Association have also backed stronger federal legislation targeting animal-fighting enterprises.
The current FIGHT Act, H.R. 3946/S. 1454, would strengthen the federal law against animal fighting by:
- cracking down on online gambling and simulcasting of animal fights;
- strengthening forfeiture provisions involving property used in animal-fighting crimes;
- restricting shipment of mature roosters through the U.S. Postal Service; and
- creating a citizen-suit provision to help stop animal-fighting operations when government enforcement falls short.
Animal Wellness Action has made combating dogfighting and cockfighting a national priority and works with law enforcement agencies across the country to identify animal-fighting operations and strengthen state and federal enforcement. Both Sen. Rick Scott and Sen. Ashley Moody have endorsed the FIGHT Act, as have 18 members of Florida’s Congressional Delegation.