100 dead cockfighters in the Philippines; 55 await deportation in Alabama

The anti-cockfighting & dogfighting FIGHT Act is reintroduced in both U.S. House & Senate

MANILA,  Philippines;  BIRMINGHAM,  Alabama––Thirty-four Philippine cockfighters,  missing since January 2022,  “are dead and buried in Taal Lake in Batangas province,  according to one of the suspects who now wants to testify,”  reported Mary Joy Salcedo on June 19,  2025 for the Philippine Daily Inquirer,  considered the “paper of record” in the Philippines.

“Alias Totoy,  one of the six security guards accused of abducting the cockfighting enthusiasts,  said they used a tie wire to strangle the cockfighting enthusiasts,”  Salcedo continued.

“The suspect also revealed that the total number of victims exceeds 100,”  Salcedo added.

ICE applies the heat

U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement,  better known as ICE,  meanwhile hit the jackpot in 95-degree Fahrenheit heat over the weekend of June 15-16,  2025,  busting sixty alleged cockfighters in Blount County,  Alabama,  among whom were 55 illegal aliens.

The illegal aliens “are set for deportation,”  reported Cynthia Gould for WBMA television news in Birmingham.

There is known to be considerable traffic in gamefowl between the U.S. and the Philippines,  including from Alabama,  but whether any of the illegal aliens caught in Blount County were Filipino was not disclosed.

Neither names,  exact times,  nor addresses of what appeared to be a raid on multiple locations in Blount Count,  Alabama,  just north of Birmingham,  were immediately revealed.

Six SWAT teams & two choppers

‘Steven Schrank,  special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations for Alabama and Georgia,  said the operation involved six special response SWAT teams and two helicopters. More arrests are expected,”  Gould said.

“This illegal cockfighting operation wasn’t just about animal cruelty,”  Schrank explained to Gould.  “It was tied to a broader network of serious crimes,  including illegal gambling,  drug trafficking,  and violent offenses.”

“Authorities seized $140,000 and are investigating links to transnational criminal organizations,  including narcotics trafficking,  money laundering, and human smuggling,”  Gould said.

Along with the money,  Gould reported,  participating law enforcement agencies impounded approximately 250 gamefowl.

SHARK & Animal Wellness Action sounded alarm

Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] and Animal Wellness Action had tried for several years,  beginning in 2023,  to alert law enforcement to cockfights in both Blount County and adjacent Cullman County.

(See Cullman County, Alabama: combatting cockfighting in a KKK stronghold.)

The prospect of nabbing illegal aliens for deportation apparently at last motivated ICE,  while state and local law enforcement remained unresponsive.

Meanwhile in Blount County,  Tennessee

Blount County,  Alabama,  incidentally,  is not to be confused with Blount County,  Tennessee,  245 miles northeast,  where previously convicted cockfighter Johnny Ray Wilburn was on June 2,  2025 formally charged with first degree murder,  aggravated arson,  vandalism over $250,000,  especially aggravated kidnapping,  especially aggravated robbery,  especially aggravated burglary,  aggravated abuse of a vulnerable person,  aggravated abuse of an elderly person,  tampering with evidence,  abuse of a corpse,  employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony,  aggravated cruelty to animals,  theft of less than $2,500,  fraudulent use of a debit card,  and theft of less than $1,000.

(See SHARK alert led to bust of cockfighter now charged with triple murder.)

Wilburn allegedly murdered Cas Ivan Farley,  61,  Delmar Marty Farley, 59, and Norma Kay Farley, 65,   after which Wilburn allegedly burned their house to the ground.

“Norma Farley’s niece told WVLT News that Wilburn is Norma’s ex-husband’s son and was staying with the family a few days before the fire,”  reported Josh Jarnigan of WVLT News in Jackson,  Mississippi.

“Cockfighting capital of the Southeast”

Back in Blount County,  Alabama,  reported Gould,  “Wayne Pacelle,  president of Animal Wellness Action,  labeled Alabama the ‘cockfighting capital of the Southeast.’  He criticized the state’s outdated laws,  noting,  ‘It’s the weakest law in the nation,  with a maximum penalty of a $50 fine. That’s like a parking ticket.’”

“Pacelle’s organization is advocating for the FIGHT Act in Congress,”  Gould mentioned,  “which is supported by 800 agencies,  including the National Sheriff’s Association.  It would also strengthen rules against dog fighting.”

The FIGHT Act,  short for “Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking Act,”  according to Pacelle,  who also heads the Center for a Humane Economy,  “would ban online gambling on animal fights,  allow courts to seize fighting pit bulls and other property used by convicted animal fighters in the commission of their crimes,  stop the shipment of fighting roosters through the mail,”  and allow animal advocates to “bring civil suits against cockfighters and dogfighters when governmental authorities are too slow to act.”

Fighting for the FIGHT Act

Originally introduced in Congress in May 2023,  the FIGHT Act died with the end of legislative business in the 118th Congress,  but was reintroduced in the U.S. Senate in April 2025 by U.S. Senators John Kennedy,  a Republican from Louisiana,  and Cory Booker,  a Democrat from New Jersey.

The FIGHT Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives on June 14,  2025 by Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska,  and Andrea Salinas, a Democrat from Oregon.

The reintroduction,  as Pacelle quickly pointed out,  came just a day after Animal Wellness Action in the words of Terré Gables of KFOR television in Oklahoma City,  “unveiled a bombshell video” showing Oklahoma Game Fowl Commission founders Anthony DeVore and Blake Pierce “participating in illegal cockfighting events held in McIntosh County,  Oklahoma.”

The covertly videotaped cockfighting derby,  hosted on June 7,  2025 by one Jeff Coleman in Shady Grove,  Oklahoma,  has so far produced “no arrests,”  Gables said,  but “investigation continues.”

(See Anthony Devore: “Shocked, shocked” to find cockfighting at a cockfight?)

Wrong turn at Albuquerque

The House reintroduction of the FIGHT Act was immediately followed by disclosure of multiple other recent cockfighting busts.

In Bernalillo County,  New Mexico,  the county web site said,  “Bernalillo County Animal Care responded to two significant animal cruelty cases this week that have brought the shelter to critical capacity.

“On Thursday, June 12,  2025,”  the web site posted,  “the FBI Albuquerque Field Office conducted a court-authorized law enforcement operation,”  during “officers discovered numerous animals and contacted Animal Care Services for assistance.  When Animal Care field services officers arrived at the scene,  they located 195 chickens and roosters,  along with 12 dogs.  During the investigation, officers also uncovered evidence that was consistent with a cockfighting operation.

Cockfighting & dogfighting added to New Mexico Racketeering Act

Bernalillo County Animal Care Services director Misha Goodman told Giuli Frendak for KOB television news on June 16,  2025 that the FBI raid had also confiscated “Slashers,  gaffs, training equipment,  and little boxing gloves that [cockfighters] put on [roosters] feet to train them to box with each other and fight each other.  They had antibiotics on site, surgical equipment to stitch up birds if they needed to,  that kind of thing,”  Goodman added.

Law enforcement “also took five of the property owner’s 12 dogs,”  Frendak reported.

Earlier in 2024,  Albuquerque-based Animal Protection Voters of New Mexico claimed a legislative victory in getting cockfighting and dogfighting added to the list of offenses recognized in amendments to the New Mexico Racketeering Act.

Louisiana cop busted for cockfighting

In Church Point,  Iberia Parish,  Louisiana,  Nicholas Daigle,  44,  was on June 14,  2025 booked for allegedly interfering with a law enforcement investigation,  cockfighting,  cruelty to animals and possession of marijuana,  after police “found bloody chickens,  a cock fighting ring,  and several dead chickens and a dead dog on the property,”  KATC television of Lafayette,  Louisiana reported.

Several other suspects escaped the scene on foot.

“The investigation is ongoing,”   KATC added.  “More arrests are pending upon identification.  Several vehicles were towed,”  belonging to “some of the participants who fled,  police say.

Former Jeanerette Parish police chief Dusty Vallot,  39,  of Lafayette,  was on June 17,  2025 arrested in Beauregard County,  Louisiana,  and charged with cockfighting and aggravated cruelty to animals,  Lilianna Badeaux of KFLY television in Lafayette updated.

“Vallot resigned as Jeanerette police chief in December 2024 and then was hired as an Iberia Parish sheriff’s deputy,”  Badeaux continued.

“The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office has confirmed Vallot is no longer their employee,”  Badeaux said.

250 gamefowl seized in Virginia

Also on June 17,  2025,  “Authorities in Isle of Wight County,  Virginia,  seized more than 250 animals during a raid tied to an ongoing animal cruelty and illegal cockfighting investigation,”   reported Patriceia Beckford for WVEC television news in Hampton,  Virginia.

“The Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office,  working alongside county Animal Services and the Virginia Animal Fighting Task Force,  executed a search warrant in the 11000 block of Smiths Neck Road,”  Beckford said.

“The search uncovered over 190 roosters and hens, many showing signs consistent with training or preparation for fighting,”  Beckford added.

“No arrests have been announced,  but charges are pending,”  Beckford finished.

Drug charges added to dogfighting case

Pending charges were meanwhile escalated on June 10,  2025 against alleged dogfighter Bruce G. Low Jr.,  46,  New Jersey Digest reported.

Low was arrested,  New Jersey Digest explained,  “after police say he accepted a package from India containing more than six kilograms of the opioid tapentadol.  Investigators then searched his family’s property and found liquid morphine,  drug packaging equipment,  and cash, according to court documents.”

Low,  who “admitted to ordering the package,”  according to police,  was charged with running a drug production facility,  drug possession,  and intent to distribute,”  a year after having been indicted for alleged involvement with “a large-scale dogfighting case tied to the same property,”  New Jersey Digest said.

More than 100 pit bulls were impounded in connection with that care.

“In 2006,”  New Jersey Digest recalled,  “Low served time on federal drug and weapons charges after authorities found an underground bunker on the property containing guns,  drugs,  and animals.

(See New Jersey dogfighting suspects include Lobrio,  Low,  & Lower.)

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