Cockfighting raid ends with 3 arrests, 141 birds seized

Police broke up a cockfighting event Sunday in the back yard of home, arresting three men and confiscating 141 dead and live birds, authorities said Tuesday.

Authorities found 16 roosters dead at the scene.

Five other men were issued citations for being a spectator at a cockfight, a Class C misdemeanor.

Police identified the arrested men as Andres Hernandez, 65; Melecio Diaz, 33; and Jorge Orozco-Carmona, 25.

Of the birds taken from the property, about 90 roosters were euthanized, a city official said.

“All 90 fighting roosters were humanely euthanized upon arrival to spare them anymore suffering,” city spokeswoman Diane Covey said in a Tuesday email. “Most were still wearing gaffs (spurs used in cockfighting), they were bleeding from wounds, and/or near death.”

Covey noted that officials with the Fort Worth Animal Shelter respond to about 10 cockfighting complaints a year but only about one in 10 is actual cockfighting.

The remaining birds are being placed with area rescue groups, Covey said. Some of them — 12 hens and several chicks — are in the care of the Humane Society of North Texas, executive director Sandy Shelby said in an email.

Patrol officers responded to the animal call shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday at 4308 Windowmere St.

When they arrived, officers heard roosters in the back yard of the residence. They looked through a fence and saw a large group of people, several chicken coops, a fighting ring and several dead roosters.

At about the same time, several men ran from the yard. Police captured several of them.

Melecio Diaz was arrested carrying a pink backpack, which officers searched. They found 15 to 20 gaffs and slashers. A gaff is a steel spur that attaches to the leg of a rooster and a slasher is a steel weapon resembling a curved knife blade, also designed to attach to a rooster’s leg, according to a preliminary police report.

Diaz told police he had put three roosters into the ring to fight with other cocks, the police report stated.

Andres Hernandez was taken into custody at the home. Hernandez is accused of having several gaffs and slashers in a lunchbox.

Detectives contacted the homeowners. Jorge Orozco-Carmona told police he allowed people to have a cockfight on his property because they did not have anywhere else to have the fight, according to the police report.

Orozco-Carmona told police he charged $20 per person and the organizers agreed to give him a percentage of the earnings.

Diaz, Hernandez and Orozco-Carmona face cockfighting charges, which are state jail felonies.

Diaz was in the Mansfield Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $3,250 bail. He also was being detained for immigration officials.

Bail information on Hernandez and Orozco-Carmona was not available Tuesday.

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Cockfighting raid ends with 3 arrests, 141 birds seized."