MARTINEZ - Teams of animal services officers and sheriff's deputies rushed through the muddy darkness, up a steep hill toward a large shadowy barn.

A citizen complaint had suggested a cockfight might be taking place in the area.

Suddenly, the night disappeared into a blaze of floodlights as a Contra Costa Sheriff's Office helicopter appeared in the sky.

The sound of a rooster crowing could be heard.

"Animal Services Department search warrant," the officers shouted. "We demand entry!"

They ran into the barn with guns drawn.

The citizen had reported ongoing cockfights and seeing 100-plus fighting cocks confined in cages on the property, Animal Services deputy director Dan Barrett said. The fights, where roosters battle each other to the death, can draw large audiences and significant illegal bets. "We investigated and obtained a search warrant."

Animal Services coordinated the raid, with help from several sheriff's deputies and their helicopter.

A lieutenant briefed the officers at the Martinez animal shelter Friday evening before the raid: What to do if shots were fired. What to do if someone was injured. To look out for a booby trap, a board with nails sticking up.

"Watch your step," said Lt. Joe DeCosta. "You don't want to get nails in your boots."

He also told his officers to wear gloves when they were removing fighting cocks from cages, and to shine their flashlights on each rooster's legs before grabbing the bird to make sure it didn't have razor-sharp fighting blades attached. Fighting cocks will attack even humans.

The officers left the animal shelter at 7:30 p.m. and headed for a staging area in the parking lot of the main Post Office on Alhambra Avenue in Martinez. There, they linked up with the sheriff's deputies who would help them in the raid.

A few minutes before 8 p.m., everyone climbed into trucks and cars and headed down Franklin Canyon Road to the barn. Exactly at 8 p.m., the officers drove rapidly onto the property, leaped from their trucks and headed up the hill in the darkness.

After discovering there was no cockfight in progress, one team moved back down the hill to serve their warrant on an older man controlling the property at 2300 Franklin Canyon Road, in an unincorporated section of Martinez.

The other team of officers checked behind the barn where the fighting cocks were reportedly located. It was impossible to miss the 150-plus roosters in individual cages in a huge pen that ran the entire length of the back side of the barn.

One of the officers shined his flashlight through a locked gate down at the ground inside, revealing a 3-feet by 3-feet piece of plywood with hundreds of 3-inch galvanized nails driven up through it.

"Here's a booby trap," he said. Setting up a booby trap is a felony.

They found two plastic buckets hidden under some straw in a stall near the entrance to the rooster pen. Inside were vitamins, penicillin, syringes, a fighting blade and a pair of tiny round yellow "boxing gloves" that are tied around a rooster's legs during training fights so the birds can't hurt each other. Possession of cockfighting paraphernalia and of trained roosters are misdemeanors.

Meanwhile the team of officers serving the warrant got the name and telephone number of a suspected bird owner from a business card they turned up in a search of the property.

Tricked into coming to check on his roosters, he arrived and was read his rights in both English and Spanish, questioned and searched. He claimed ownership of some of the birds.

One of the officers took aside the man's young son, who was with him in his truck, and assured him that he was not in trouble and they wouldn't hurt his dad. As the night started to get cold, another officer took off his jacket and gave it to the youngster.

The men were detained on suspicion of a variety of cruelty to animal charges and then released. Barrett said he anticipates referring the case to the District Attorney's Office.

Exhausted officers spent Saturday counting, identifying, and taking pictures of the approximately 150 birds.

Lt. Joe DeCosta said the last of the officers finally left the property around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, after they seized 15 of the roosters as evidence. The rest of the roosters were left in their cages, "seized in place." Animal Services will monitor care of the birds left on the site until the case is resolved.

Source:  http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8297392.htm