14 people face second-degree animal cruelty charges after state police responded to a tip about cockfighting at a Casey County home on Sunday. According to arrest citations, several attendees tried to flee. Steve Hindi, the president and founder of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, said his organization provided the tip – and troopers responded quickly.
“If you go in too early, they're not doing anything yet. Then they go, ‘Oh, we're just holding a show.’ And you don't want to go in too late because then all the animals have died. And it's kind of a little bit of a threading the needle situation, try and get it right.”
Hindi has been a vocal critic of the way members of Kentucky law enforcement respond to cockfighting tips, but said they seem to be more responsive lately. He praised troopers for breaking up something that’s not only illegal, but quite cruel.
“The birds have weapons attached to their legs, blades or gaffs. I mean, they're literally -- it's a knife fight. It's a stabbing fight, cutting fight.”
Hindi said in the wild, roosters fight for dominance, but not to kill each other. He also said cockfights are magnets for other sorts of crime.
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