Todd Stosuy, animal control supervisor of Santa Cruz County Animal Services, seizes one of nearly 50 roosters Friday at a home on Paulsen Road.

Distressed squawks could be heard in Watsonville as nearly 50 fighting roosters were seized from their cages and hauled off Friday by animal controllers.

A cock-fighting bust at 37 Paulsen Road Friday was made just hours after Jose Manuel Quintero of Watsonville confessed in court to possession of fighting roosters.

Quintero was sentenced to 36 months probation and is subject to a $750 fine.

One Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputy and four animal service authorities marched into Quintero’s aunt’s back yard filled with more than 100 handmade metal and wooden cages.

Fighting cocks flapped violently as they were trapped by Animal Control Supervisor Todd Stosuy’s net, picked up by the legs and shoved into a cardboard box that read, “I love my pet.”

The seizure was the result of an investigation launched on April 5 when authorities were alerted, by an anonymous caller, of “excessive rooster noise.”

“There were 123 roosters when we first got there,” Stosuy said. “We found steroids, slashers and fighting implements.”

Some of the discovered birds had fighting wounds on their bodies and were depressed.

Roosters are prepared for fights by cutting off their waddles and combs, and are housed close together to make them more aggressive.

Knives are attached to the birds during fights.

Quintero said all the authorities found were old metal blades lying on the ground.

Five fighting roosters were seized during the April 5 raid because they required immediate medical care, but the rest were left behind until authorities could obtain search warrants.

Friday was a proud victory for Stosuy within the war against cock fighting, an underground betting sport where roosters fight to the edge of death.

“Huge money is being made in this,” Stosuy said.

A rooster with a winning lineage can be worth up to $10,000, and a cockfighting purse can be as high as $50,000.

Cockfights are hard for law enforcement officers to catch, with private homes hosting the fights protected by armed guards at the front door, security cameras and fighting rings that can be quickly hidden, Stosuy said.

Quintero, who has raised roosters at the Paulsen Road property for more than 15 years, said he first got into cockfighting when he was a migrant laborer working on lettuce fields.

“It’s a national sport in the Philippines,” Quintero said, “Mexico’s known for its chick fighters too.”

“This is a victory for the roosters that would have been subject to a slow death,” he said.

Even if some roosters are euthanized, they might still have a better fate than a life of fighting. Many of the birds will escape being euthanized, however, with the help of chicken rescuer Rita Martin of Stockton, who cares for and finds homes for the birds.

Stosuy said cockfighting breeders are like DUI drivers because they often commit the same crime again. If Quintero is caught in possession of a rooster during his probation, he would likely face jail time, Stosuy said.

“This is not the first year I got busted, and it won’t be the last,” Quintero said watching his last prized roosters being hauled away.

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*Photos by Tarmo Hannula*

(Published in 3/17/07 edition)

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