State troopers arrested four Minnesota men in Jefferson County after discovering 27 illegal cockfighting birds in a sport utility vehicle.
Dang Vang, 23, Billy Thao, 21, Sieng Vang, 24, and Ma Vang, 24, all of St. Paul, Minn., are being held in the Jefferson County Jail for investigation of “animal fighting,” said Gilbert Mares, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol.
The four were in a Dodge SUV on Interstate 70 when the vehicle was pulled over for a traffic violation, Mares said.
“The roosters were in crates,” he said.
The officer suspected the roosters could be illegal fighting cocks and called the Department of Agriculture to help in the investigation, he said.
The four men face possible felony charges, Mares said.
Last year, an alleged cockfighting operation was uncovered in Parker.
The Elbert County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man in June after a U.S. Mail official noticed a large number of highly aggressive roosters being shipped to the same Parker address.
When officials went to Mauro Loera’s barn they found roosters with tell-tale signs of illegal cockfighting, Undersheriff Barry Tipton said.
The roosters’ spurs were fitted with gaffs — metal spikes and razors that they use to stab and gash other roosters.
The roosters’ wattles and crowns had been surgically removed to prevent blinding by their own blood during combat with other gamecocks.
Syringes and bottles of vitamin B were found near their pens indicating the roosters had been injected to enlarge their muscles so they could inflict deeper wounds, Tipton said.
Veterinarians from the Colorado Department of Agriculture euthanized the roosters, hens and numerous chicks they found inside Loera’s barn, Tipton said.
Mares said he could not comment on the evidence they have that the 27 roosters found on I-70 Friday were cockfighting chickens.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
