Investigators raided a cock-fighting factory in Brooklyn on Wednesday, seizing dozens of birds that were juiced on steroids and bred to brawl - some scarred from a life of cruelty.Raid on Brooklyn cock-fighting facility
Juan Corchado and Pedro Mejia are charged with breeding and grooming the creatures for fights in the lucrative betting rings that pop up across the city.
"I love my birds," Corchado, 40, protested as he was led out of a Cypress Hills apartment building in handcuffs by investigators from Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes' office.
The 59 cocks - from chicks to veterans - were worth at least $80,000, officials said.
"There is no ring here, but they were breeding and housing them for the fights," said Al Lombardo, deputy chief of the District Attorney's investigators.
Cages of the raging roosters were stacked three deep in the Arlington Ave. backyard. Shipping labels showed some were brought in from Puerto Rico.
Most had their combs cut off, making it harder for combatant birds to grab them. Other were shaved or had their tail feathers clipped.
"I shave them because the weather is hot," Corchado insisted.
27 comments:
Oh yeah and you want immigrants like this living next door to you?
can anyone tell me what the hell is the thrill of cock-fighting?
I have been told that it's a way of life down in the Dominican Republic and other places like that. Don't you remember when Pedro Martinez went down there and was attending these fights? They couldn't doing anything about it and he said that it's a way of life down here.
But you know what? It isn't the way of life here!
Not just among the Dominicans – there are plenty of our own countrymen who are devotees of the game. New Mexico and Louisiana became the last states to ban it (Louisiana’s ban apparently goes into effect this month) but no one believes that it’s actually ended in those places; it’s just gone underground. As for the rest of the country, as the National Geographic reported:
“Though outlawed, cockfighting still thrives in some rural communities throughout the United States.
In recent weeks police raids have shut down operations in Arkansas, California, Colorado, and North Carolina.”
And, of course, as ESPN has noted in an article about Mexican cockfighting:
”For an activity now widely viewed as sadistic, it has a proud history. Like many men of their eras, George Washington was a cockfighting trainer, and Abraham Lincoln was a cockfighting referee in the woods of Illinois. The ancient Greeks and Romans pitted roosters against one another to rouse soldiers to battle.”
You can read a first-hand account of Southern cockfighting in Burkhard Bilger’s Noodling for Flatheads.
If you haven’t seen it, Monte Hellman’s film Cockfighter, starring the great Warren Oates, is actually an underappreciated masterpiece. (The Charles Willeford novel that it’s based on is a pretty fair read, too.)
I know I’m going to be blasted now for condoning bloodsport. I don’t. My point here simply is that, far from being an alien crime, cockfighting is as domestically American as the Constitution and Coca-Cola.
"there are plenty of our own countrymen who are devotees of the game"
I suppose there are, but it's now illegal in every state. So I guess we are a bit more "enlightened" than some of our other neighbors in this hemisphere.
What kind of work do you do, Ridgewoodian, that you can spend all day researching tidbits of useless information?
He either works for Parkside or Snopes.
Who the hell cares if Lincoln or Washington did it? It's the 21st century for Christ's sake! We don't accept animal abuse in this day and age. Other places it's normal behavior.
Si, cock fighting big part of our culture in DR. Me and my hombre Pedro Martinez were filmed at one a while ago. Me don't know why all the fuss about us in American media.
I do know I like gringos like this guy Ridgewoodian. I can do anything I want in US, Ridgewoodian defend me. I leer at Ridgewoodian girlfriend, him do nothing. I whistle at Ridgewoodian girlfriend, Ridgewoodian do nothing. Soon I sleep with Ridgewoodian girlfriend, he do nothing.
Soon Ridgewoodian take up cock fighting himself. But it different than cock fighting in DR. Ridgewoodian cock fighting no use roosters, he use hot dogs.
somehow i doubt ridgewoodian is a gringo
By Ridgewoodian's twisted "logic", we shouldn't get upset about Moslems marrying their first or second cousins. Since some backwards hillbilly white people in the United States also do it, it's therefore OK.
somehow i doubt ridgewoodian is a gringo
Trust me, he's a self-hating gringo. Even the Mexicans don't hate white people as much as Ridgewoodian does.
What kind of work do you do, Ridgewoodian, that you can spend all day researching tidbits of useless information?
He either works for Parkside or Snopes.
My guess is that he probably works in "academia". Probably a low level instructor at CUNY, not quite tenured, but has plenty of time for idle pursuits. Definitely isn't involved in any of the "hard sciences" such as physics, engineering, mathematics, or finance. Probably something lightweight such as sociology, psychology, or possibly womyn's studies.
Plus, from reading his many screeds that he tries to pass off as knowledge, the following quote from George Orwell comes to mind:
"You must be an intellectual. Only an intellectual could say something so stupid."
ANONYMOUS: What kind of work do you do, Ridgewoodian, that you can spend all day researching tidbits of useless information?
I'm on vacation, friend. Listening to the Mets game right now (not going well for the Mets, alas).
Sounds like Wade was correct, then.
(Sorry, wrote too soon. Mets win in the bottom of the 9th on a David Wright home run.)
Christ, you people are fucking idiots.
ANONYMOUS: …but it's now illegal in every state. So I guess we are a bit more "enlightened" than some of our other neighbors in this hemisphere.
Legal, illegal, it’s clearly still prevalent enough.
ANONYMOUS: Who the hell cares if Lincoln or Washington did it? It's the 21st century for Christ's sake! We don't accept animal abuse in this day and age.
Well, they were important individuals in our history…
ANONYMOUS: Other places it's normal behavior.
Like Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc.
JUAN MARICHEL: Why don’t you learn how to spell your own damn name, Sr. Marichal. And I doubt my ladyfriend would want to have to-do with you since you’re not that fine, fine Derek Jeter.
ANONYMOUS: somehow i doubt ridgewoodian is a gringo
I’ve posted my picture scores of times here. You be the judge of my gringosity.
WADE NICHOLS: By Ridgewoodian's twisted "logic", we shouldn't get upset about Moslems marrying their first or second cousins. Since some backwards hillbilly white people in the United States also do it, it's therefore OK.
Did I SAY that cockfighting was OK? No. In fact, I said I don’t condone it. My point was that it’s not JUST a Dominican thing, or a Mexican thing, or a an immigrant thing, that it’s clearly an AMERICAN thing, too. I know this is too subtle a point to get your tiny brain to understand but please do try to make an effort. As for backward hillbillies, didn’t you yourself write:
“If it was a bunch of Irish Catholics throwing palm leaves in the ocean on Palm Sunday, you'd be the first one bitching about the "white trash" and their silly superstitions.”
Why were you a friend and defender of white trash yesterday and a basher today?
And what is it with you and Muslims? And the wedding customs of other cultures? Christ, man, you do have issues.
WADE NICHOLS: My guess is that he probably works in "academia".
Again, you and your “quotes.” What’s that supposed to mean?
If you’re really, really interested, I posted a link to where I work some weeks ago.
WADE NICHOLS: ...the following quote from George Orwell comes to mind:
That’s the second or third time you’ve thrown up that quote in the last few days. I love and appreciate Orwell as much as the next guy but please, time to move on.
Time to leave. The Intellectual Assholes (IA) are here and know everything!
You 2 (RW & WN) guys are pathetic.
Get a room already!
"My point was that it’s not JUST a Dominican thing, or a Mexican thing, or a an immigrant thing, that it’s clearly an AMERICAN thing, too."
It was. It's not prevalent in our culture now; it's an underground hobby. In South America and the Caribbean, attending a cockfight is like going to a ballgame here. Maybe you don't understand this difference. The people doing it here are criminals. The people doing it there are heroes. We have different values which have evolved over time. Theirs obviously have not. Now I know you will probably pull some gang bang bullshit out of your ass to say this is how our culture has evolved. That's illegal too. In some cultures, gangs actually run the government.
Who would have thought that IAs would read Queens Crap?
Time to leave. The Intellectual Assholes (IA) are here and know everything!
Look man! I may be an asshole, but I ain't no intellectual! I'm living in Queens, I can't be that smart!
I one picked two crabs off my pubic area and watched them go at it with a magnifying glass. (I had the magnifying glass, not the crabs.)
george:
check yourself into the nearest looney bin
Their are many people agains cockfighting but many of the founding fathers of this grate nation loved the sport and respected it for one honest abe i dont think that cockfighting is bad it is a sport an ancient sport and should be respected.Abrajam Lincon is rispected and a statue of him was built,he hapened to love and practice the sport one true and grate american president so i guess it aint that bad evryone has the right to belive and practice what they believe in i dont think cock fighting should be illegal there are breeding farms that breed pigs and chicken to feed this country i guess that should stop to then because its animal cruelty thats bull shyt.
i guarantee that if cockfighting was legal it would help a hole lot with our economie it would crate jobs for lots of people building cockpits selling food at the pits and alot of other reasorces needed to breed and train these wonderful animals they are born to fight there not like dogs that you have to teach them to fight no they are born with the natural instinct from the moment they hatch cockfighting was practiced by many of the founding fathers of this grate country it is almost a religion a way of life maybe grater than americas biggest pastime baseball cockfighting if made legal would explode wildely throughout the us as is it is secrately practiced in millions of places
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