Showing Animals Respect & Kindness relays tip––and local cops act
ATHENS, Texas––“Showing Animals Respect & Kindness got a tip this morning of a cockfight in progress near Athens, Texas. We called it into the Henderson County sheriff,” SHARK investigator Mike Kobliska emailed to ANIMALS 24-7 on July 13 2025.
“They seem to have done a good job,” Kobliska said. “I spoke to an investigator late in the day while he was still on-scene. He said that when the sheriff’s dept arrived, there were 200 to 300 people and only three deputies.
“Reading between the lines,” Kobliska offered, “it sounds like a good number of cockers ran away. But they have nine people in custody, some on felonies.
“They also have 29 cars they are seizing. And they impounded 89 roosters they are trying to find homes for. The birds have been moved to the Henderson County Fairgrounds for the time being. The county is open to any ideas about finding homes for the birds.”
Cops also confiscated “a large amount of money”
Updated Zak Wellerman for CBS 19 in Tyler, Texas, the following day, July 14, 2025, “Henderson County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a rural property in the 7500 block of County Road 3918 in the Athens area just after noon Sunday. They saw a large crowd of about 200 people, including many who ran away after seeing law enforcement.
“Evidence showed that an active cockfighting ring was happening,” Wellerman reported. “Through a search warrant, deputies found a fighting arena and confiscated sharp metal gaffs, which are commonly used in illegal cockfighting matches,” along with “a large amount of money.”
Charged with cockfighting were Jesus David Garza, Carlos Estrada-Guerrero, Christy Nikol Bass, Victor Hernandez Flores, Juan Carlos Flores, Thomas Urbano Flores, Shannon Dean Kellis, Otis Darren Thomas, and Allan Joseph Jernigan.
“More arrests are expected”
“The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to aggressively pursue and prosecute those involved in animal cruelty and organized illegal activities,” said sheriff Botie Hillhouse, adding that “More arrests are expected.”
The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office “dispatched narcotics investigators Jonathan Barrios and Jude Bonner” to the scene upon receiving the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness tip, a sheriff’s office posting to Facebook recounted.
This suggests that turning up evidence of crimes carrying stiffer penalties than cockfighting was expected.
Whether such evidence was found has so far not been disclosed.
Local cockfight murder
Local authorities may have been more aware than most of the association of cockfighting with drug trafficking and violent crimes against humans since the apparently still unsolved murder of 21-year-old Luis Rodriguez at a cockfight in May 2012.
Rodriguez was shot “during an illegal cockfight that was put on just north of Athens, near the Henderson-Van Zandt county line,” KLTV in Longview, Texas, reported at the time.
“The SPCA of Texas removed 27 birds and 80 eggs,” from the murder scene, including 17 hens and 10 fighting roosters,” then-SPCA of Texas vice president of communications Maura Davis said.
Few homes for impounded gamefowl
Overwhelmed by gamefowl impoundments since then, the SPCA of Texas no longer accepts gamefowl.
“We have been part of several cockfighting investigations/busts recently. While it is great to bring down depraved criminals who take pride in this cruel and gruesome bloodsport,” posted Linda Robertson, Texas state director for Animal Wellness Action after the Athens impoundments, “the majority of rescued roosters end up being euthanized,” Robertson acknowledged.
“I’ve reached out to several sanctuaries in this area to try to find homes for as many of the roosters as possible,” Robertson said, “but have not had any takers,” partly because “these birds are ‘special needs.’
“Texas has more cockpits than Walmarts”
“There were 500 roosters at a bust in Titus County, Texas on July 4,” Robertson mentioned, less than ten days before the Athens bust, leaving resources for rescued roosters stretched even more than usual.
Many more roosters likely to be impounded soon as law enforcement escalates raids on cockfights, in part because of Donald Trump administration pressure to identify and deport criminal illegal aliens. Few criminal activities, if any, attract as many illegal alien participants as cockfighting.
“Texas has more cockpits than Walmarts,” observed Kevin Chambers, Animal Wellness Action state director for Oklahoma.
For the record, there are 590 Walmart stores in Texas.
(Kendall County Sheriff’s Office photo)
More busts in Illinois
Cockfighting busts continue, as well, in Kendall County, Illinois, within 20 miles of the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness national headquarters in Geneva, though SHARK has yet to claim credit for them.
Barely a week after authorities in Kendall County broke up a cockfight in Oswego Township, arresting Jose Martinez, 40, and Veronica Jaime, 46, impounding 237 gamefowl, the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office disclosed having impounded 424 gamefowl while arresting Jose Miguel Alicea-Reyes, 51, and Lydia Ramirez, 56, in Na-Au-Say Township.
The investigation reportedly began on May 10, 2025, after Alicea-Reyes was apprehended for an alleged traffic violation and was found in possession of six roosters and cockfighting paraphernalia, but cockfighting charges were apparently not filed until May 21, 2025, with additional charges brought on July 8, 2025.
Alicea-Reyes apparently remains at large.
FIGHT Act
“When the law does its job, and acts on tips, we can scale up our work,” commented Wayne Pacelle, president of both Animal Wellness Action and the Center for A Humane Economy.
By that, Pacelle means, in part, scaling up efforts to pass a trio of federal bills that would increase the ability of federal agencies to combat cockfighting, dogfighting, and other crimes against animals, even when local agencies are uncooperative, as in the instance of cockfighting is especially often the case.
The FIGHT Act, introduced into the current Congress as Senate Bill 1454 and as House Resolution 3946, would “ban shipping roosters through the U.S. mail,” and “establish a private right of action for citizens to win court orders to disassemble dogfighting and cockfighting syndicates,” Pacelle summarizes.
Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act & Animal Cruelty Task Force Act
The Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act, introduced as House Resolution 1477 by Representatives David Joyce, an Ohio Republican, and Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, “would create a dedicated team of prosecutors at the Department of Justice to go after perpetrators of federal animal cruelty crimes,” according to Pacelle, who emphasizes, “These crimes are already on the books — now we need federal prosecutors to pursue them with vigor.”
Finally, the FBI Animal Cruelty Taskforce Act, introduced as House Resolution 3683 by Representatives. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, and Nicole Malliotakis, a New York Republicam, “would establish a dedicated unit of FBI agents to pursue traffickers of animal crush videos, leaders of dogfighting networks, horse sorers, and other serial abusers,” Pacelle explains.
Pacelle estimates that “There are up to 20 million fighting birds and 150,000 cockfighting operators in the United States.”
ANIMALS 24-7 puts the numbers somewhat lower, at about 94,000 gamefowl breeders keeping just under 19 million gamecocks, hens, and chicks.
Either way, the numbers indicate a crime which, while recognized as such in the laws of every state, has long continued and grown through law enforcement indifference, and often outright corruption.
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