By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
August 1, 2024
A huge bust of a cockfighting ring in Granville County on July 27 has organizations across the state and in Washington, D.C., calling for stronger laws to combat the cruel practice and the laundry list of crimes so often connected to it.
“The recent operation in Granville County, involving sheriff’s offices from Vance, Franklin and Durham counties, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, and N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement, underscores the urgent need to upgrade North Carolina’s statutes on cockfighting,” says the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “Despite support from the State House in 2019 and 2021, the Senate has yet to give the legislation a hearing.”
Acting on information from an undercover officer, dozens of deputies raided the cockfighting ring at 1009 Lawrence Road, between Creedmoor and Wake Forest. They arrested more than 15 people and seized thousands in cash as well guns, drugs and 50 vehicles. Granville County Sheriff Robert Fountain told the media the scene was brutal, with razor blades taped to the roosters’ legs for the deadly fights and some birds being injected with adrenaline to prolong the violent contests. In addition to a few hundred live birds, officers found buckets filled with chicken carcasses.
Suspects who fled into the woods when the raid begin were pursued with the use of drones and heat-seeking cameras. And U.S. Homeland Security is reportedly viewing photos of the suspects for potential detainees.
Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, both based in D.C., called the raid a “clear case of the presence of cockfighting trafficking that reaches from North Carolina locations to organized crime networks as far flung as Mexico, Guam, and the Philippines.” The organizations released a video pointing the finger at members of the North Carolina Gamefowl Breeders Association and men it described as “other illegal animal fighters who consort with this group.”
“Since our 2020 investigation into illegal cockfighting in North Carolina, we’ve learned about the people who have built a criminal syndicate driving cockfights inside and outside of North Carolina,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, in a press release. He said the crime network needs to be disbanded because it “not only threatens the well-being of animals but the safety of our communities.” Pacelle said that gambling, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and other criminal conduct are routinely commingled with animal fighting.
The Rev. Creech shares Pacelle’s concerns.
“As a Baptist preacher who loves North Carolina barbecue, fried chicken, and a good steak, it should be readily apparent that I’m no left-wing animal rights activist. But I am saying this cockfighting business is not inconsequential, and our statutes need an upgrade to tackle it effectively,” Creech said. “Christian teaching emphasizes our role as stewards of creation. While animals are not our equals, as humans are made in the image of God, good stewardship prohibits the abusive, wasteful, and thoughtless use of animals. Cockfighting, by its very nature, is cruel, barbaric, and beneath our responsibilities as stewards of creation.”
Creech pointed to the words of Dr. Richard Land, former president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who described cockfighting as “a pornography of violence,” which brutalizes both the animals involved and the spectators. Land said the practice treats living beings as inanimate objects, inflicting needless pain for trivial entertainment.
Creech said that although cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states, current North Carolina laws are insufficient to address the complexities and modern realities of the issue.
“Disturbingly, these events often involve children as young as five, who are exposed to violence and cruelty, deeply affecting their impressionable minds. It is reportedly associated with illegal gambling, drugs, and even child molestations by criminals involved in the sport,” he said. “Moreover, there is a significant network of breeders smuggling thousands of roosters annually from North Carolina to places like Guam, fueling an illegal and lucrative cockfighting trade. Even if these perpetrators are apprehended, the current legal framework fails to impose adequate penalties, making our state inadvertently complicit in this underground crime.”
Creech said the time has come for North Carolina to strengthen its statutes against cockfighting, “ensuring that we fulfill our duty as stewards of creation and protect both man and beast.”
The Human Society of the United States ranks North Carolina 33rd out of 50 states when it comes to statutes addressing cockfighting. According to state law, cockfighting is a felony punishable by a term of 3 to 10 months. But related activities such as possession of birds for fighting, being a spectator at a cockfight or possession of implements are all legal.
A bill passed by the N.C. House in 2019 would have made it a felony to bring a minor to a dog or a cock fight. The Senate however, did not take up the measure.
In 2021, Robert Higdon Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, investigated breeders across the state and found evidence of 1,000 birds being shipped to Guam for cockfighting. Perpetrators weren’t publicly identified, and no one was arrested because of the lack of clarity as to what penalties they would face. Shipping records have shown as many as 9,000 fighting roosters were shipped from a dozen U.S. States between September 2000 and November 2017. Outpacing all the other states was North Carolina.
“Failure to deal with such an ignominious designation makes our state complicit with a form of underground crime,” Creech said. “State laws must be tightened so that law enforcement agencies can effectively defend our state from this scourge.”
At the national level, Congress is considering the FIGHT Act. According to Pacelle, the legislation would ban online gambling on dogfights and cockfights; prohibit shipping adult fighting roosters through the U.S. mail; strengthen forfeiture authority for fighting pits and properties used for fighting; and allow private rights of action against dogfighters and cockfighters in the absences of federal law enforcement. The measure has been endorsed by more than 650 organizations and law enforcement agencies including many in North Carolina.
