WASHINGTON, D.C. — Animal Wellness Action today commended the Oakland Police Department and Alameda County prosecutors for their recent raid on a suspected cockfighting operation in the city’s Elmhurst neighborhood.
Police executing a July 31 search warrant at a residence reportedly found malnourished roosters, cockfighting implements such as metal gaffes and spur-cutting scissors, protective gear, number labels, and performance-enhancing drugs like testosterone often administered to make roosters more aggressive. Animal control staffers on the scene determined that caged hens were being used for breeding, not food production, according to police. Authorities also allegedly discovered three rabbits confined without access to food or water.
Prosecutors have since charged the resident, 65-year-old Eduardo Ochoa Vega, with a felony count of cruelly wounding an animal and four misdemeanors tied to possession of cockfighting roosters and paraphernalia. Ochoa Vega has not been taken into custody and has not yet entered a plea, though he reportedly admitted to “prior” involvement in cockfighting.
“Cockfighting is not farming — it is premeditated animal cruelty and a criminal enterprise that often involves gambling, narcotics, and other crimes,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “We commend the Oakland Police Department for exposing this operation and call on local prosecutors to send a strong signal that cockfighting will not be tolerated in California.”
Cockfighting is a felony under federal law and a state crime in California, which may harbor more illegal cockfighting operations than any other state — with as many as 8 million fighting birds, according to a prior U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate.
“These kinds of cases remind us that animal fighting is never an isolated act of cruelty — it destabilizes neighborhoods, exploits animals for profit, and often links to gambling, narcotics, and weapons crimes,” added Pacelle. “Communities are safer when law enforcement dismantles these criminal rings.”
California must strengthen its animal fighting law, with its penalties the weakest in the West, according to the two animal welfare groups. Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are also working to advance national legislation against animal fighting. The Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, H.R. 3942 and S. 1454, has now been endorsed by 900 agencies and organizations, including the United Egg Producers, American Gaming Association, National Sheriffs’ Association, the National District Attorneys Association, and 21 state sheriffs’ associations. Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-44, Ken Calvert, R-41, Judy Chu, D-28, Ted Lieu, D-36, Josh Harder, D-9, Laura Friedman, D-30, Salud Carbajal, D-24, Kevin Mullin, D-15, David Valadao, R-22 and Scott Peters, D-50, are cosponsors of H.R. 3946.
A fact sheet on the FIGHT Act can be found here.