Possible cockfighting ring
busted
By: Antonio
Castelan
Rooster
fighting is a rarely discussed topic in Central Texas, but it happens. On
Thursday Williamson County Sheriff Deputies checked out a Florence farmhouse and
found dozens of blades usually used for cockfights.
Sheriff deputies
said this is a crime that is hard to catch in the act. Be warned -- some of the
pictures in this story are disturbing
Williamson County Sheriff Deputy Bill Pentecost shows the things he found on at a Florence farmhouse on Thursday while responding to an aggressive dog call.
"We ended up seizing approximately 150 chickens total. Now that's including the roosters, including hens, chicks," Pentecost said.
Sheriff investigators think those chickens were being used for cockfights. They confiscated the birds, along blades, cockfighting videos and animal vitamins to energize the roosters.
"This is actually a first for Williamson County -- that we had enough to execute a search warrant. So, it's something we've been trying to do for a long time," Pentecost said.
Mahlon Arnett is with the Williamson County Humane Society.
"I think it’s immoral wherever it happens. You are talking about cruelty to animals. These animals feel pain," he said.
Mahlon believes people need to look out for these crimes.
"If people would think about it, and would call when they know something is going on. It would help a great deal," he said.
No arrests have been made, yet, but charges are pending.
The fighting of animals is a state jail felony. Anyone caught is looking at two years in jail with a $10,000 fine. Chickens are not the only animals officials fear are being brutalized. Last week News 8 Austin reported on a growing problem in Bastrop County involving the theft of dogs for dog fighting.
Source: http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=97913&SecID=2
BANGKOK: The first
study of Asia's bird-flu cases shows the virus has an alarmingly high fatality
rate and that victims typically die less than two weeks after falling ill with
raging fever and breathing difficulties. On average they fell ill three days after
contact with infected poultry.
"Eight of the 10 patients had a clear
history of direct contact with poultry and there was no definitive evidence of
human-to-human transmission," the study said, referring to fears the virus could
mutate and spread among humans.
In a separate study of Thailand's five
bird-flu fatalities, WHO noted four were boys aged six to seven, which could
indicate "a group with particular high-risk behaviour". A summary of 23
confirmed cases of bird flu in Vietnam and Thailand, including 18 people who
died, found 43 per cent were women, the median age was 13, and on average death
occurred within 13 days.
Most victims lived near infected poultry
and some were reported to have touched sick birds.
Behind WHO's bald statistics, there were
glimpses of the human tragedy behind the epidemic sweeping 10 Asian nations,
including the case of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy. "This boy attended
cockfighting and would regularly hold the roosters and other chickens prior to
the fights," it said, adding he was ill for nine days before dying.
Another eight-year-old girl was a lucky
survivor, after presumably catching the virus from a pet duckling.
Until the WHO study, all the knowledge
scientists had about the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was gleaned from cases
in a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong, which killed six
people.
15feb04
The World Health Organisation
survey of 10 human cases of bird flu in Vietnam, where 14 people have died of
the disease, found eight in the group died, one recovered and another remained
in a critical condition.