A major cockfight that was supposed to happen this past Saturday in Ohio was shutdown by SHARK.
Stock photo from Pxfuel
This happened in Lawrence County, Ohio - the same location where
cockfighters brutally attacked SHARK President Steve Hindi and drove another
SHARK Investigator off the road after they repeatedly rammed his vehicle
four weeks ago. Last Saturday we showed these violent, animal abusing
criminals that SHARK backs down to no one.
Here’s how it went down: We had two teams in OH that night. One team was
near the property where the cockfight was going to happen, outside Waterloo,
Ohio. The second team was at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office
headquarters, in Ironton, Ohio. At around 6 PM, and once the first team
confirmed there was going to be a fight, the second team walked into the
sheriff's headquarters and reported the cockfight. Shockingly, the Sheriff’s
department resisted sending anyone out to the site!
SHARK investigator Janet Enoch reports the cockfight at the headquarters
of the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office. Deputy Jeremy Hanshaw, maskless,
was more concerned about our cameras than in felony criminal behavior.
Given the refusal of the police to do their job, we put out an emergency action alert asking for caring people to call the sheriff’s office and demand they take action. We gratefully thank all of you who responded! As the calls came in, the sheriff’s staff still resisted! A shift change occurred at 8 PM. The new commander came out to talk to us at 8:30, and after a brief discussion, he said he would go to the site himself.
During the almost three hours between our first alerting the Sheriff’s office, and the arrival of the new on-duty commander, the cockfighters got word of our efforts. They shut down and fled, almost certainly before the fighting even started. Given that shutting down cruel cockfights and keeping birds from being killed is our main goal, this is a major victory. As for the cockfighters, they lost a lot of money.
Unfortunately, there were no arrests, because they had fled long before
police arrived. We obviously need to expose the corruption within the
Lawrence County Sheriff's Office. That said, we believe that not everyone in
the sheriff's office are corrupt, so SHARK president Steve Hindi made a
video right in the sheriff's office asking the good officers to contact us,
anonymously if needed, with information that may help our investigation.
Cockfights are illegal across the US - in all fifty states - by both state
and federal laws. These are criminal organizations that also act as a
conduit for illegal drugs, weapons, gangs and prostitution. And while we
would prefer they all spend time in jail, we also know that police action
may take weeks or months and in the meantime, thousands of birds will die
horrible deaths. As we’ve also seen in Clay County KY, and in Lawrence
County, sometimes the police are either in on the cockfighting, or they
simply refuse to do the right thing. Therefore, shutting cockfights down by
exposing them is the most effective way to save lives.
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