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Sam Penrod ReportingCapt. Cody Cullimore, Pleasant Grove Police Dept: "It's all for the money and the cruelty to the animals."
Police busted a cockfighting ring in Utah County and found five roosters already dead. Cockfights are typically thought to happen in the middle of the night, but this one was busted yesterday in broad daylight. Several people got away, but police seized much of the items used to put on the fight.
Police broke up the fight yesterday around noon. They detained 19 people and charged them with animal cruelty. By all accounts, it is a brutal crime and one police plan to stop.
Twenty-five roosters in cages designed for cock fighting are the survivors of a fight yesterday, which police raided at a barn in Lindon. Officers found five roosters already dead, and could see the fighting was fierce.
Capt. Cody Cullimore, Pleasant Grove Police Dept: "It's very bloody, very cruel to animals, they fight to the death. These are not your average chickens you see on a farm, these birds are trained to fight and to kill."
Names of the birds are written on tape on their cages. Police believe if they fight would have continued, there would only have been one survivor. To make matters worse, several children were watching.
Capt. Cody Cullimore, Pleasant Grove Police Dept: “There were young children in between the ages of eight and ten who were spectators at this event and watching what was going on."
Police say gambling is the primary motivator behind the fights. Officers seized all of the spurs and spikes, which are used to make the fights lethal.
Capt. Cody Cullimore, Pleasant Grove Police Dept: "They are professionally made, sharpened on both edges and on the tip, they are strapped to the heels of the chickens. During the fight, the chickens jump at each other and peck each other. This is a very organized thing, we have learned in the past and been told this time, there is a lot of money involved. These people travel around Utah and even in the intermountain west doing this."
Police believe the cockfight in Lindon was only a stop and not where it was organized. Still, they say they want to keep it from happening again.
Capt. Cody Cullimore, Pleasant Grove Police Dept: "We have empathy for animals. We do everything we can to prosecute the individuals involved and to try and stop this from occurring."
Those 19 people detained by police were charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty, and then released. They do face up to six months in jail.
