29 Fighting Cocks Flee the Roost With Help From Thieves

While the only officer on duty was in a kennel feeding a pack of barking dogs, somebody cut through a fence surrounding the East Valley Animal Shelter and made off with 29 fighting cocks, authorities said Monday.

Not a sound was heard by the duty officer Sunday afternoon, and the gamecock caper remained a mystery at the North Hollywood shelter a day later.

Because of the thefts, the East Valley shelter’s 60 remaining roosters were transferred Monday to the West Valley Animal Shelter in Chatsworth, where about 250 others were already in custody. Animal-regulation officers said it would be easier to watch over the birds at a single location.

The birds--stockpiled in recent months after police raids on several illegal cockfights--were being kept in individual cages.

Stacked wherever space could be found--in parking slots normally reserved for animal-collection trucks, a trash-can storage bay and under a shed outside the shelter--the caged roosters were squawking to beat the band.

“We have them all over the place,” said Dennis Kroeplin, the shelter’s wildlife officer. “They take up a lot of room because we have to keep them separated. If we put them together, they would kill each other. They are trained to fight.”

Saying it is unlikely that roosters could be stolen without a fuss, senior East Valley Animal Regulation Officer Bob Pena speculated that the burglary occurred about 3 p.m. Sunday--while the duty officer was out of earshot in the kennel. The birds were noticed missing a short time later, he said.

Los Angeles police said Monday they had no idea who cut a hole in the shelter’s chain-link fence and took the birds, stored in cages beneath a covering in the yard.

Because only six cages were taken, animal-regulation officers said they suspect that most of the birds were put into sacks.

The missing birds were originally believed to be among 95 confiscated by police during a raid on a Sun Valley cockfight Feb. 20, but further checking determined that they were confiscated during earlier raids.

Whoever stole the birds may have been motivated by their value.

“A good fighting bird might be worth $300 or $400 or $500 to the people that are involved in fighting,” Pena said.

A judge can order a fighting cock destroyed if its owner is convicted of engaging in the illegal sport, Kroeplin said.

He said the number of fighting cocks confiscated by Valley animal-regulation shelters has been on the rise in recent months.

Caring for so many birds poses problems for animal-regulation officers, especially because most must be kept for as long as six months while they are being used as evidence in court cases.

“They take a lot of work and care,” Kroeplin said.