July 27, 2020

DEAR FRIENDS, 

In June, the SHARK team worked furiously to shut down cockfighting in Kentucky. We want to take this opportunity to bring you up to speed.

Starting on June 6, SHARK targeted three major illegal cockfighting operations in KY. All three were highly organized criminal ventures located in buildings built specifically for cockfighting, including multiple fighting pits, stadium seating, vendors, concession stands, and extensive illegal gambling. The cockfighting operations were in the counties of Butler, McCreary and Clay. We are happy to report that all three of these locations have been shut down, as well as a fourth location, again in Butler County, in July. We want to thank our partners at the Humane Farming Association for their financial support in helping to defray our expenses with this operation.

From SHARK's undercover video inside a cockfight 

Using a combination of undercover work inside cockfights, and drone video outside, SHARK captured ground-breaking video of animal cruelty and illegal gambling. We are proud to say that all three were shutdown by our work! 

To add to this list of victories, on July 18th, we went back to KY and uncovered a fourth active cockfighting location. A fight was planned for that night, however after we showed up they cancelled the fight!

A SHARK investigator got into this cockfighting location and scared the cockfighters off from having a fight that night

This is no thanks to corrupt local police, who not only did nothing, but in the case of the Clay County Sheriff’s office, two of their deputies were filmed inside the Laurel Creek Game Club during a cockfight, palling around with cockfighters while illegal acts happened all around them. That’s how bad it is in KY.  What shut these cockfights down was the fact that SHARK got inside two of them and captured damning video of the third using our drone.

Two Clay County Sheriff's deputies at the Laurel Creek Game Club during a cockfight




This was the story that broke the news. It was an exclusive investigation where we worked with WKRC.
 
WKRC-TV 
Cockfighting: Cruelty & Contamination 



Lexington Herald Leader
KY deputies went to cockfighting arena but didn’t charge anyone, animal group says
Chaifetz [SHARK investigator] said in an interview that deputies were talking and laughing with people at the arena while cockfights went on. “That can’t be acceptable anywhere,” he said. “It was really shocking to me that there was no attempt to do any lawful intervention.”


WTVQ
Video shows Clay County deputies taking no action at cockfight



Animals 24/7
Kentucky state cops let 33 cars leave alleged cockfight before investigating


•There were also two articles printed in The Manchester Enterprise, but they are not available online without a subscription.




 

Due to the fact that cockfighting is so disgusting and cruel, YouTube will remove any video that shows such graphic footage. That’s why we have posted only censored videos to YouTube and all uncensored videos are on SHARK’s Facebook page.  
 

The following two videos deal with debate challenges sent to SHARK by cockfighters. The first video deals with a cockfighter from South Carolina who challenged us to debate and we accepted. However, the cockfighter in question was bullied by other cockfighters because they thought he wasn’t going to be good enough. They wanted SHARK to debate a man named BL Cozad.

Cozad is supposed to be some kind of expert for cockfighting, but when we looked at his Facebook page, we found a man drenched in conspiracy theories, racism, homophobia and anti-semitism. Watch the second video to learn how disgusting and vile that cockfighter is. We will have more on Cozad and that debate soon.
 




Please contact KY Governor Andy Beshear and ask that he strengthen KY’s cockfighting laws. Also call on him to have the State Police and Sheriff's offices in Butler, McCreary and Clay counties investigated for their complicity in allowing cockfights to operate.
 
(502) 564-2611
https://governor.ky.gov/contact/contact-us

Attorney General of Kentucky.
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Kentucky State Police commissioner
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Lt. Colonel,Operations Division, Kentucky State Police
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Assistant for the general counsel of the Office of the Governor
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This is the latest of a long line of issues demonstrating not only how important SHARK's work is, but how unique and powerful a force we are for animals. No organization has done more to stop rodeos, pigeon shoots, canned hunts and now cockfighting, and our many other campaigns which save millions of lives. No one does what SHARK does, but without financial support, we are limited.
 
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