6 charged in Rhode Island cockfighting operation

Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Six men were arraigned and charged with violations of the Animal Welfare Act in the U.S. District of Rhode Island Monday in Providence.

The six defendants are charged with up to five counts each for their roles in a March 5, 2022, cockfight allegedly held at the Providence home of defendant Miguel Delgado, 73, and at other times, the Dept. of Justice announced Tuesday.

The DOJ defines cockfighting a "contest in which a person attached a knife, gaff or other sharp instrument to the leg of a 'gamecock' or rooster and then places the bird a few inches away from a similarly armed rooster."

The roosters fight by flapping their wings and jumping while stabbing and cutting each other with the weapons affixed to their legs until one dies or otherwise quits the fight. Both birds often die from their injuries.

The DOJ says Delgado hosted a series of cockfights called "derbies" at his home and is charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters in an animal fighting venture on several dates, buying and transporting sharp instruments called "gaffs" used in cockfights and illegally possessing roosters for use in an animal-fighting venture.

Rhode Island residents Onill Vasquez Lozada, 39, and Antonio Ledee Rivera are charged with unlawfully possessing roosters in April 2021 for use in an animal fighting venture and sponsoring and exhibiting roosters during the March 2022 derby at Delgado's home.

Rivera also is charged with violations during an earlier cockfighting event at Delgado's home.

Massachusetts resident Germidez Kingsley Jamie, 31; Jose Rivera, 67; and Luis Castillo , 35, are charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters at an animal fighting venture during the March 2022 derby.

Jamie and Jose Rivera also are charged with one count each for allegedly buying and transporting gaffs for use in an animal fighting venture.

If convicted, each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison.

Several federal and state law enforcement agencies investigated the cases the respective defendants.

A federal grand jury indicted the six defendants last week.

Seven members of a family in Alabama were convicted of similar charges in 2022 for their roles in an Alabama cockfighting ring.

Riverside County (Calif.) Sheriff's deputies in August 2022 recovered 143 caged roosters that had to be euthanized after the deputies stopped a large cockfighting event in Jurupa Valley.

About 200 people attended the event, but most of them fled with the police arrived.