KY deputies went to cockfighting arena but didn’t charge anyone, animal group says
An animal protection group is seeking an investigation after videotaping two Clay County sheriff’s deputies at a cockfight last month who did not charge anyone with animal cruelty.
Sheriff Patrick Robinson said he believes the officers mistakenly thought cockfighting is legal.
In fact, one deputy who spoke with the president of the animal protection group the night the video was shot acknowledged people were “fightin’ roosters,” but said the activity is not illegal in Kentucky.
Robinson said the group should give evidence to local prosecutors if it wants to pursue charges. His department has relatively few officers to patrol a large county, he said.
“I’ve got more problems to deal with than two roosters fighting,” Robinson said.
The group involved is called Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, or SHARK, based in the Chicago area.
The group said it sent investigators to Kentucky beginning June 6 and several weekends after, taking overhead drone footage of cockfighting arenas in Clay, McCreary and Butler counties.
The video from Clay County also includes footage shot with hidden cameras on June 20 inside the arena, called the Laurel Creek Game Club.
The video shows two deputies near the door talking with people, including people holding roosters, while roosters fight in pits nearby.
Roosters involved in cockfighting typically have sharp blades attached to their legs. The fights often leave the birds injured or dead.
In the SHARK video, Steve Hindi, president of the organization, called cockfighters “degenerate” and “psychopathic,” forcing roosters to fight even when they’re hurt.
The video indicates Stu Chaifetz, an investigator with SHARK, called a Clay County dispatcher to report the cockfight and ask that it be shut down.
The dispatcher said he would send an officer. When Chaifetz called back later, the dispatcher said officers had checked and “there was no one up there.”
There were cockfights going on in the arena at the time, however, according to the video.
Chaifetz said in an interview that deputies were talking and laughing with people at the arena while cockfights went on.
“That can’t be acceptable anywhere,” he said. “It was really shocking to me that there was no attempt to do any lawful intervention.”
Robinson said the deputies were at the arena only 11 minutes, though Chaifetz said it was 25 minutes.
Chaifetz said cockfighting often includes illegal gambling, which can be destructive to families. People in the Clay County video can be heard yelling out bets on birds.
The fact that cockfighting is a felony under state law in most states, but only a misdemeanor under Kentucky law, has made the state “a nexus for this illegal activity,” Chaifetz said.
Federal authorities suggested the same thing in 2014 after busting a large cockfighting facility in Floyd County called the Big Blue Sportsmen’s Club, which had arena-style seating and a full-service restaurant. It drew participants and spectators from throughout the Southeast and as far away as Illinois, Michigan and Maryland.
An investigator said in a court document that the case started with an investigation of illegal alcohol production in neighboring Virginia in which police noticed ties to animal fighting.
Cockfighting is a felony in Virginia, so cockfighters came to Kentucky because of the lesser potential charge, a federal investigator said.
The arena in Clay County has been hosting cockfights for years, Chaifetz said.
In 2010, the Humane Society of the U.S. released an undercover video it shot showing a state police officer and a volunteer deputy at the arena and not arresting anyone.
The county sheriff at the time said the officers were looking for a fugitive, not investigating cockfighting.
In the SHARK video released recently, Hindi said the Clay County Sheriff’s Office has protected Laurel Creek, calling the department “as crooked as the cockfighters.”
In a letter released this week, the group called on Gov. Andy Beshear to investigate.
Robinson said the corruption allegation is a lie, and that he’s exploring a potential defamation complaint. He said SHARK is hyping the incident to seek financial support.
“Patrick Robinson is not for sale and neither is his office,” Robinson said.
Dog fighting is a felony under Kentucky law, but cockfighting falls under the definition of second-degree cruelty to animals — causing an animal to fight for “pleasure or profit.”
That is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
However, the law on cockfighting has had a muddled history.
The legislature approved a law in 1974 that brought cockfighting under the definition of second-degree animal cruelty, according to a state Court of Appeals decision.
In 1980, the legislature approved a measure excluding birds from that law, which would have made cockfighting legal.
Then-Gov. John Y. Brown vetoed that measure, but attorneys representing cockfighters have argued in several cases that Brown delivered the veto after the deadline, meaning the law stood and cockfighting was not illegal.
However, the Court of Appeals has upheld the veto, and therefore the law against cockfighting, in more than one case, most recently last year.
In that case, a Calloway County man charged with second-degree cruelty to animals for cockfighting on his farm argued that birds were exempt from the definition of animals.
The Court of Appeals disagreed, saying it was proper to prosecute the man under the law.
Lawmakers have had four decades since the controversial 1980 law to adopt another measure and specifically exclude birds if they wanted to, the court said.
The fact that the legislature hasn’t done so “is indicative of its intent to include birds in the definition of animal,” the court said.
The language in the law is confusing and it would be good to make it clearer, said Todd Blevins, Kentucky state director with the Humane Society of the United States.
Blevins said that while most police try to do the right thing, it is possible that some officers in the state don’t know cockfighting is against the law.
“The fact remains that it is illegal,” Blevins said, adding that his organization is happy to train police on animal-protection laws.
In addition to making the law clearer, the Humane Society of the U.S. favors tougher laws on cockfighting, including making the activity a felony, Blevins said.
Other measures could include making it illegal to possess birds for the purpose of fighting, outlawing possession of paraphernalia such as the sharp spurs attached to the roosters, and making it illegal to attend a cockfight.
