When Does A Political Agenda Become An Entertainment Business?
 
For The Third Day In A Row
 
How Many Other Political Agendas Get So Much Free Publicity For The Publication Of So Much Mis-Information ?
 
   "Post readers and Animal Planet fans might have recognized "
 
Is This An Effort To Capitalize On Further Free Advertising For More Tax Free Dollars?
Is This An Effort To Claim Breeders As Fighters For Future Use?
Is This An Effort At Sensationalism?
Is This An AR Entertainment Business?
 

'Animal Precinct' cops make headlines

Post readers and Animal Planet fans might have recognized the ASPCA agents featured in the photographs in yesterday's Post story about cockfighting in The Bronx.

They were Annemarie Lucas and Joseph Pentangelo, whose exploits are featured regularly in the Animal Planet series "Animal Precinct." Lucas and Pentangelo are Special Investigators for Humane Law Enforcement under the auspices of the ASPCA. They're two of 12 agents from around the country featured in "Animal Precinct" and were on the scene Sunday when cops raided a cockfight and breeding basement.

Source:  http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/74466.htm

Say raid won't stop cockfights

By AUSTIN FENNER, CHRISENA COLEMAN and RALPH R. ORTEGA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

ASPCA veterinarian technician Vincent Ungro holds hen that was among many fighting birds found during Sunday’s raid on cockfighting den in South Bronx.
Devotees of a South Bronx cockfighting den shut by cops this weekend predict the operation will be back in business in days.

"It's big money," said a patron of the second-floor cockfighting den yesterday. "They'll be back next week, I guarantee it. If not in the same place, somewhere else in the neighborhood."

Four of the men arrested this weekend were busted in a similar raid on a cockfighting arena in January.

Cockfight clubs, like the one on Longwood Ave. that was raided Sunday, often relocate and reopen for business quickly after a bust, said authorities and fans of the lethal blood sport.

Police and agents from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stormed the blood-soaked club, once a church, early Sunday after lookouts using two-way radios missed the oncoming raid.

Eleven men were arrested, including eight on felony charges of cruelty to animals. They face two to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted.

Three of those - Jose Nunez, 47, LaTorre Valentin, 34, and Tomas Hierro, 44 - were arrested after a Jan. 18 raid on Park Ave. in the Bronx. Another man charged this weekend, Angel Luis Benitez, 69, had been issued a criminal court summons for allegedly participating in the Jan. 18 cockfight.

Benitez, the alleged ringleader of Sunday's bird fight, could not be reached for comment.

ASPCA Special Agent Joseph Pentangelo said authorities hope that stiff fines and the threat of prison will dissuade people from abusing animals in illegal cockfighting dens.

"If cockfighting were my hobby, I would find a new hobby," he said.

But the message wasn't convincing for some.

"I'll get me a new place and some more roosters, because this is a business," the patron recalled an alleged organizer saying after he was released by cops.

On Sunday, cops seized $18,000 and 19 shaved roosters with fighting spurs. The building also allowed illegal alcohol sales and gambling.

An additional 125 birds were retrieved from a basement on 156th St., authorities said.

Neighbors, accustomed to cockfighting dens that open, close and reopen in different spots to avoid detection, weren't surprised by the use of a former church.

Other dens have sprung up within one and two blocks - at a fish market and a former movie theater.

Originally published on April 29, 2003
 
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/79386p-72998c.html
 
 
COCKFIGHT 'KINGPIN' HELD ON 5G BOND
By DANIEL SCHIFF

April 29, 2003 -- A man arrested in a police raid on a secret Bronx "hotel" for breeding fighting cocks was ordered held on $5,000 bail last night on charges of violating the state ban on animal fighting.

Julio Candell, 65, of The Bronx "ran the entire operation" in the basement of a private house on East 156th Street, according to Assistant Bronx District Attorney Michael Discioarro.

Police said they found 100 cocks, hens and chicks in the basement during the Sunday-night raid.

They said the cocks were being bred and trained to rip each other apart.

Candell was arraigned on one felony and one misdemeanor charge of violating state agriculture law.

A second Bronx man, Antonio Acosta, 42, was charged with one misdemeanor count and released on his own recognizance.

Both men claimed they were caring for the birds, not breeding them.

The bust came shortly after police raided a major cockfight in a former Bronx church and busted eight alleged organizers and 69 spectators.

Both police sweeps came after three months of surveillance by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/74563.htm