Bloody cockfighting raid in NC nets 73 arrests

Bloody cockfighting raid in NC nets 73 arrests

www.examiner.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (Map, News) - More than 70 people have been arrested in a cockfighting ring that secretly gathered in central North Carolina to watch a $40,000 tournament so gruesome that one of the roosters splattered blood on the investigators' search warrant, authorities said.
Deputies didn't expect to find so many people crammed into three chicken houses that had been cleaned out to provide hidden parking spaces and a cockfighting pit, Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid Jr. said in an interview Monday. Authorities arrested 73 people, ranging in age from 16 to 79, and charged them all with cockfighting and cruelty to animals, both felonies.

Reid said several others escaped after fleeing a back door during the raid Saturday afternoon at the site about 15 miles southeast of Asheboro in the center of North Carolina.

"I had no idea it would be this large," Reid said. "I've raided these things before and (if) you get 20 or 25 people, you've got a big crowd. I thought that this was unreal."

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People still do this stuff? Cockfighting? At least we know that Michael Vick didn't play a part in this one.

Hard to believe that over 70 people were arrested for such a thing.

They even had a grand prize of 40,000 dollars. Not bad. I'd like to think society has grown up at least a little but this proves otherwise.




www.examiner.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

#ing Hicks.

Makes me sick.

reply to post by bismarcksea


It's not just "Hicks" as you state. In the 70's I lived and worked on a huge ranch in Northern Calif. that was owned by the Kennedy clan. They never showed their faces at the ranch but had "representatives." This ranch raised 1000's of fighting cocks for export to the Philippines where cockfighting is legal. I was hired to help care for the other livestock on the ranch and made friends with the guy that was in charge of breeding the gamecocks. This was a high profit business. So you see, maybe the "hicks" are dumb enough to fight the cocks where it is illegal but the rich know that the real money is in raising them. Bloodlines is extremely important just like in breeding race horses or show dogs etc. Back then a prize cock could fetch as much as $25 for less than $2 in feed. You do the math as they shipped 2-3,000 cocks a month.
There was no fighting or any cockfighting weapons allowed anywhere on the ranch. The "reps" would make unannounced visits and do thorough checks for weapons. Every nook and cranny was subject to search. They didn't care what we had as long as there was nothing that would cause a cockfighting arrest.


[edit on 2-2-2009 by Muundoggie]

I'd pay to see it. Seems like one of those things you gotta do at least once in your life.

Btw someone should have proofread the article better.

Makeshift benches surround a plywood ring, where the body another rooster is lying.

I'm from the Philippines and our neighbor's cockfighters are crowing as I type this. They're just 2 meters from my room.

AFter Sunday mass rich and poor alike crowd into cock fighting arenas. Big money is exchanged including brand new cars with their plastic seat coverings still on. I think I've heard rumors when I was a kid of a gambler offering his daughter's hand for marriage after losing a bet.

reply to post by Yarcofin

I only went to one event. It WAS interesting to say the least and I won a couple hundred bucks.
The losers were the days lunch and dinner menu.
I did this when I was 22. I would not do this now as I am much wiser (I think) at 60 and find it to be extremely cruel to the animal.

Originally posted by Yarcofin
I'd pay to see it. Seems like one of those things you gotta do at least once in your life.

Make friends with a guy from the Philippines and your more than likely to get invited to one.


[edit on 2-2-2009 by Muundoggie]

Originally posted by Yarcofin
I'd pay to see it. Seems like one of those things you gotta do at least once in your life.

How about horsefighting? I last saw one way back in the early 90s. It was at an open field near an elementary and a high school at that. AFter school we'd watch it. It was fun.

They still do it, I think. But only in outlying barrios (villages). It's mostly entertainment for the lower class and it's hard to find open spaces in the towns. I'm sure it would be Michael Vick's greatest wet dream.