ARCHIVED - Cockfighting arena and badly injured birds found in Totana
The incriminating evidence includes wounded cocks and a blood-stained arena
One person has been placed under investigation in the municipality of Totana and is likely to face charges related to cruelty to animals after the Guardia Civil found what appears to have been used as a cockfighting arena.
The location was discovered during a drug trafficking operation involving 13 house searches, one of which resulted in a report being made to the Seprona wildlife protection wing of the Guardia of a 3-metre wooden ring which aroused officers’ suspicions. When Seprona officers arrived at the scene they found that around the 50-centimetre-high ring were some 30 chairs, and that there were numerous blood stains on the inside of the ring.
More clear evidence was found in the form of a clock for timing bouts, medications for healing wounds including antibiotics, 27 box cages and 7 more with metal bars, but most conclusive of all was the presence of two fighting cocks. Both were suffering badly injured combs, legs and necks, and parts of the combs were found on the floor next to the cages.
Elsewhere on the property other fowl were found, some of them apt for breeding, as well as more mutilated cocks, and it has since been established that the person under investigation holds no licence granting permission to run such an establishment. Neither has any documentation been produced to justify the presence of the medications, the disposal of dead animals or any kind of animal breeding activity.