Our Sheriff Joe is at it again

I know the outcome for several of these roosters was not good but hopefully with Sheriff Joe and his posse's intervention some were spared.

Cock Fighting Ringleader Facing 115 Counts
Updated: Wednesday, 09 Mar 2011, 6:05 PM MST
Published : Wednesday, 09 Mar 2011, 10:23 AM MST

LAVEEN, Ariz. - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is investigating an alleged rooster fighting operation in southwest Phoenix.

The sheriff's office says the operation may involve at least 130 roosters.

Deputies arrived at 67th Avenue and Baseline Road to serve search warrants Wednesday morning.

Jesus Llovera was arrested for owning, keeping and training roosters with the intent to fight.

He was also arrested last May at a cockfight in Tonopah and was given two years unsupervised probation (see photo).

"He can't learn a lesson to stop this kind of activity, which is very serious, horrific, when you have the roosters fighting each other till their death," said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Sheriff's deputies found a refrigerator full of bottles of injectable medicine used for cockfighting. They also found roosters prepped to fight.

"I take all animal cruelty very, very seriously. We have a special unit just to go after those that abuse," said Arpaio.

Actor Steven Seagal was at the scene with a film crew. He says he goes after animal abusers with his own SWAT team. Seagal is also a member of the MCSO posse.

Llovera has been charged with 115 felony counts of owning, possessing, keeping, or training roosters with the intent to fight.
MCOS investigares alleged cock fighting ring

There is a video on the right side that I opted NOT to view.

I hope Sheriff Joe nails this guy to the wall! 91/2 times out of 10 fighting rooster must be put down because they can not be kept with other chickens because they were trained to kill another chicken. Its my understanding they can not even be kept with hen's, except to breed, & then they must be watched very closely so they won't kill her.

It's basically a no win for these poor roosters.

Urgh, I hope this guy is locked up as LONG as possible. NOTHING irks me more than cockfighting. Makes me sick to my stomach. And all the poor roosters, who will no doubt die now... As far as I know, there's only one sanctuary that does fighting rooster rehab, and they're on the other side of the country. I took in two roosters from them from a cockfighting bust in Virginia a couple years ago- they made a pretty huge impact on me. They were both the SWEETEST birds I've ever met. Not angry, not vicious, not aggressive- just terrified out of their minds. It only took a couple of weeks for them to integrate with the rest of the flock. I miss them so bad- even though I never tried to socialize them with humans, one of them still always came running to climb up into my lap, all on his own. SO misunderstood.

EgypSwiftLady wrote:

I hope Sheriff Joe nails this guy to the wall!

91/2 times out of 10 fighting rooster must be put down because they can not be kept with other chickens because they were trained to kill another chicken. Its my understanding they can not even be kept with hen's, except to breed, & then they must be watched very closely so they won't kill her.

It's basically a no win for these poor roosters.

Well, this low life of a human now has 115 felony counts against him.
Hopefully that will be enough to keep him behind bars for quite a while.

I believe the majority of the roosters in this case were euthanized.

Luna Wolf wrote:

Urgh, I hope this guy is locked up as LONG as possible. NOTHING irks me more than cockfighting.
Makes me sick to my stomach.

And all the poor roosters, who will no doubt die now... As far as I know, there's only one sanctuary that does fighting rooster rehab, and they're on the other side of the country. I took in two roosters from them from a cockfighting bust in Virginia a couple years ago- they made a pretty huge impact on me. They were both the SWEETEST birds I've ever met. Not angry, not vicious, not aggressive- just terrified out of their minds. It only took a couple of weeks for them to integrate with the rest of the flock. I miss them so bad- even though I never tried to socialize them with humans, one of them still always came running to climb up into my lap, all on his own. SO misunderstood.

It does me too.

Such a terrible shame that animals should still be bred and "trained" to fight each other in this day and age!
I'm glad that the man responsible has 115 felony counts against him. I hope that this time he is taught a lesson.
Sheriff Joe sounds like my kind of hero! I wish there were many, many more like him!

Luna, your story of the two roosters was so moving! I'm glad they got to spend dome time where they were safe and loved. Your knowledge and love for all kinds of animals is amazing!

Teresa wrote:

Such a terrible shame that animals should still be bred and "trained" to fight each other in this day and age!

* I'm glad that the man responsible has 115 felony counts against him. I hope that this time he is taught a lesson.

** Sheriff Joe sounds like my kind of hero!

*** I wish there were many, many more like him!

Luna, your story of the two roosters was so moving! I'm glad they got to spend dome time where they were safe and loved. Your knowledge and love for all kinds of animals is amazing!

I don't know if he will ever learn his lesson, but maybe he will be 'out of business' for a long time and that will certainly help some that would most likely be future victims.

** Yep!!

*** It's a shame police/sheriff officials in other areas don't take animal abuse more seriously. Or seriously at all.
I'm sure glad Sheriff Joe is in my neighborhood.

Teresa wrote:

Luna, your story of the two roosters was so moving! I'm glad they got to spend dome time where they were safe and loved. Your knowledge and love for all kinds of animals is amazing!

Thank you, Teresa.

Luna Wolf wrote:

Urgh, I hope this guy is locked up as LONG as possible. NOTHING irks me more than cockfighting. Makes me sick to my stomach. And all the poor roosters, who will no doubt die now... As far as I know, there's only one sanctuary that does fighting rooster rehab, and they're on the other side of the country. I took in two roosters from them from a cockfighting bust in Virginia a couple years ago- they made a pretty huge impact on me. They were both the SWEETEST birds I've ever met. Not angry, not vicious, not aggressive- just terrified out of their minds. It only took a couple of weeks for them to integrate with the rest of the flock. I miss them so bad- even though I never tried to socialize them with humans, one of them still always came running to climb up into my lap, all on his own. SO misunderstood.

Thanks to you Luna I now know of a rescue that is working to rehab fighting cocks...
http://sanctuary.bravebirds.org/projects/rooster-rehab/

Is this the one you adopted from?

Yep, that's the one. :3 It was a pretty cool coincidence, I had found their website a couple years ago and forgot about it. It just randomly popped into my head one day and I found the site again. Literally two days after I found them they got the roosters in.