TONOPAH, AZ — Multiple people have been arrested and cited after an active cockfighting ring was discovered near Tonopah on Saturday.
According to MCSO, deputies were called to the property on January 10 after the out-of-state property owner reported unauthorized people on the land and requested a welfare check.
When deputies arrived, they say they saw dozens of people fleeing the area and observed an in-progress cockfight. Several people were detained at the scene.
Inside the property, investigators say they found clear evidence of cockfighting, including a fighting ring, gambling ledgers, scoreboards, and cockfighting equipment.
Deputies say they also found 34 live altered roosters and two recently deceased roosters near the ring. Another area on the property reportedly contained several more dead roosters buried in a hole.
MCSO says multiple people were cited for being present at a cockfight, while others were booked into the county jail on charges related to facilitating cockfighting.
“I was pretty surprised to hear about that,” said Borix Espina, a neighbor. “Stuff like that always brings the wrong crowd, illegal activity. Obviously, you don’t want that kind of stuff around your kids or your family.”
“You know, it was pretty large. There were a lot of attendees, a lot of different vehicles that were on site,” said William Jinks, a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
ABC15 is also hearing from the property owner, who did not want to be identified or recorded for the story. He says he has been out of state for work for the last few months and that he hires staff to take care of his property in Tonopah.
The property owner says his yard tenant was the one who allowed the cockfighting on his property; she has since been fired.
We previously spoke to animal rescuer Tracey Miller about how much abuse cockfighting birds face.
“They are pumped so full steroids, medicine, pain killers, and they are trained to fight literally anything, that even if we were to take them in on a 10 day seizure, we couldn’t send them to a rescue or adopt them out,” said Miller, who works with the Arizona Humane Society.
The investigation remains ongoing.
