Monday evening: the largest bust in sports history.
Fifty were arrested, over 5000 implicated in crimes so heinous, so gruesome that thousands were simply executed on the spot.
It was a night that will rock the world of cockfighting forever.
When several law enforcement agencies, in tandem with the Humane Society, descended on Otay Mesa near the Mexican Border on Monday, they found the rooster equivalent of a Navy SEALs training ground.
Equipped with a cache of cockfighting gear, including hundreds of knives that resemble shark’s teeth made of metal, the seven-acre compound was like a factory for a chicken army big enough to take over small towns.
Attempts to disguise the compound as maybe a Burger King plant were curiously lacking and about 4,000 of the birds were immediately euthanized. Raiders found medical supplies, scales and computers inside the facility, not to mention cockfighting videos and underground publications. Insiders to the situation agreed that it just might have been the photos of people with their birds that gave it away.
The kicker is that the same site was raided in 2001 to the tune of 2,500 birds and 30 human arrests, resulting in harsher cockfighting legislation in California. Great idea fellas; wait six years, let the fine go up to $5,000, then do it again.
Eventually these guys will get the message: If you’re going to cockfight, do it in Louisiana, where it’s still legal.
Some people who don’t know the ins and outs of fighting chickens may immediately think of that line in “Talladega Nights,” but cockfighting is no laughing matter ““ unless you’re the San Diego D.A.
Supporters of the primal violence that is cockfighting point to the fact that roosters fight instinctively ““ strapping knives to their legs just adds to the fun for everyone.
Dale Barras, owner of the Atchafalaya Club, a cockfighting hot spot in Louisiana, is one of many proponents who see the savage endeavor as a harmless activity.
What matters is that people are entertained while keeping “kids out of trouble,” one Louisiana dad told the Associated Press.
It’s not important that owning the same birds that keep you out of trouble in one state is a felony charge in 27 others.
For those of you who are like Kramer in the “Little Jerry Seinfeld” episode, roosters don’t fight with gloves and helmets. It’s a no holds barred, anything goes, all-out chicken brawl until one goes down like Maximus in “Gladiator.”
Eric Sakach, the state director of the Humane Society, described a cockfight as a “bloody blur of feathers” in which “whole appendages can fall off.”
Yeah, forget baseball, that sounds like a way better national pastime.
Unfortunately at most cockfights ““ which will be illegal in all states by late next year ““ there’s no Kramer to jump in and save the Little Jerrys of Otay Mesa or Louisiana. Cockfighting aficionados are a little more dispassionate than that ““ they’re just there to keep “kids out of trouble.”
So with most of the latest 5,000 chickens found in the bust killed following the raid, the question now turns toward the future of the 1,000 emotionally troubled, spiritually anguished surviving roosters of Otay Mesa.
The only real answer is that the next time you get a tough, gritty chicken sandwich from BK, don’t bother yourself with the animal rights mumbo jumbo ““ just think of the kids.
E-mail Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu for more information on the plight of psychologically battered poultry.