Colorado Group Steps in to Rescue Dozens of Animals After Mass Abuse Found at Oklahoma Farm
A fire in Norman, Oklahoma exposed animal abuse at a local farm. Police say they found dozens of mistreated roosters, who had been forced to participate in a rooster-fighting ring by their owners.
Animal rights organization, Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig's Roost, took in dozens of the birds, after authorities found the illegal operation on January 23, 2024.
Norman fire and Animal Welfare were called to the scene on reports of a fire in a barn near Lake Thunderbird, KOCO 5 reports. Once they got there, they found a large-scale cockfighting operation.
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Speaking with the news outlet, Jewel Johnson, the founder of Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig's Roost, told them the scene was bad. Many of the birds were maimed; they had their wattles and combs chopped off.
"They cut off the comb which is the large piece of skin that is on the top of their head. They cut it off as close to the scalp as they can with scissors," Johnson explained. She added that one way they knew that there was a cockfighting-ring was the fact that many of the roosters had their spurs trimmed down.
"They cut those spurs down to a quarter inch so they can wrap the feet and put a weapon there, a gaff or a knife. It depends on the style of cockfighting. Most of the roosters that we did receive have their spurs cut down," she explained.
The fire department called Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig's Roost to come collect the animals. The organization picked up more than 70 animals on January 28. They have since been transferred to the sanctuary in Bennett, Colorado.
Johnson said they're hoping to re-home the roosters now that they're safe. "Most of the time when roosters are confiscated from cockfighting, roosters are killed because the public believes they are dangerous birds," she said. "What you wouldn’t believe is the ones that are about to be fought are usually the easiest ones to hold and interact with. The more homes these birds get into, there’s more people that can advocate for them," she added.
Why is Cockfighting Illegal?
As Johnson herself pointed out, many people who force roosters to participate in cockfighting believe they have the right to do so. But there are strong reasons why cockfighting is an illegal practice.
For one, roosters are raised for fighting on these “game farms." Breeders will even kill roosters they deem inferior and keep the ones more likely to fight. Those animals are then "conditioned" to fight by their owners through physical work, which can include attaching weights or blades to their legs for "practice fights" with other roosters. Breeders call this process being"tested with steel."
Cockfighting is also illegal for the simple fact that roosters fight to the death. Something that is completely inhumane and is too horrible to even imagine.
It's unclear if the owners of this cockfighting-ring face any charges as of this reporting, but here's hoping all of these roosters find new homes where they can live in peace.
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