The Civil Guard dismantles a small cockfighting coliseum in Murcia with capacity for 200 spectators

The Civil Guard has dismantled the facilities where a massive cockfight was going to take place in the municipality of Fuente Álamo (Region of Murcia, about 16,200 inhabitants). Fifty roosters of the Spanish fighting breed, some with mutilations on their crests and stifles, awaited the event on an agricultural farm where everything was ready for the animals to fight. The “tentadero”, as the place where the fights were to be held was called, was more reminiscent of a boxing ring than a corral or a chicken coop. The images released by the Civil Guard are striking: in the center, a circular square decorated in the likeness of a casino roulette wheel, with red and black numbers, a way, according to research sources, of encouraging the public to place their bets, increasing thus the profit of this illegal business.

The 200 seats were arranged in a circle around the tentero and in tiers to facilitate visibility to the rows behind. This small illegal coliseum even had electronic scoreboards to announce the score in the fights. Also a scale for weighing birds and health instruments. The tentadero was a fixed structure and in general nothing in the installation has the appearance of provisionality. The light was hooked to the power line.

The fight room was accessed through a double security door that connected to an attached bar, which would be another of the activities with which those responsible profited from this business. The entire facility is located on an agricultural property that is accessed by a single path that leads to an esplanade that researchers believe was used as a parking lot. The ship was surrounded by surveillance cameras.

In the back there was an area of ​​cages where the roosters waited for the moment of the fight. At the moment the Seprona agents entered the ship, there were fifty cocks in those cages, most of them, already ready for combat, with mutilated crests and stifles. This practice is common, according to the researchers, in this type of animals, from which these parts are removed to facilitate the fight and prevent them from being easily injured. Likewise, they had very sharp spurs, also characteristic of these fighting breeds.

Close sources detail that the facilities did not correspond to a breeding facility, but only a storage place until the time of the fights. Making a simile with the bullfighting world, these cages would perform the same functions as the pigsties, where the bulls wait until the moment of the bullfight. At the facilities, the agents also found around 40,000 euros in cash, money that they believe was intended for betting.

The investigation, which has continued for several weeks, has ended with the arrest of a man who is considered the organizer of the mass fight that was going to take place and who is accused of the crime of attempted animal abuse. The owner of the property where the facilities were located has also been identified and who is accused of electricity fraud.

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