Tommy Ray Pollock is charged with various charges related to cockfighting.
/ Texas County Sherriff's Jail
A Hooker man has been arrested on various charges related to cockfighting.
Texas County Sheriff's booked Tommy Ray Pollock, 64, of Hooker, into the Texas County Detention Center in Guymon on Monday.
The charges are for violating Oklahoma Statute 1692.2 - Instigating or Encouraging Cockfight; Statute 1692-3: Keeping Place Equipment or Facilities for Fighting; Statute 1692-4: Servicing or Facilitating Cockfight, and Statute 1692.5 - Owning, Possessing, Keeping or Training Board for Fighting.
On May 5, officers responded to a 911 call about illegal cockfighting at a rural address west of Hooker.
Hooker Police Officer David Witt and Animal Control officer Benji Fuentes were the officers who responded to the call.
When officers arrived several men scattered and ran from a metal-framed barn. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Brandon Bussey and Texas County Sheriff Sgt. Stanley Harper, secured the area and found three more males.
The males are identified as Martin Herrera, 42, of Ulysses, Kan., and Jeremy Blan Blan, 35, of Waka, Texas, and Pollack. The property is owned by Juan Mesta, 47, of Guymon, Texas.
Upon investigation officers found wooden boxes with compartments filled with fighting roosters. All of the roosters had poultry identification bands on the right leg.
Fuentes located boxes containing paraphernalia used for cockfighting. Five carcasses of dead roosters were found in within the barn.
Fuentes said in the Affidavit of Probable Cause that he clearly saw a large wired enclosed pen with a dirt floor. He also stated that he saw many colored feathers and drops of what appeared to be blood. The enclosure also had bleacher seating for spectators.
Police gathered photographic evidence and confiscated of the boxes and paraphernalia.
Pollock confessed to conducting the cockfighting and each participant was charged $300 entrance fee to enter three fighting roosters. Herrera was asked to be the referee. Blan was one the person who placed bets on one of the fights.
Mesta was contacted on May 6 and he confirmed he owned the property since 2000 and had constructed the cockfighting pen in the barn. Mesta stated that Pollock had contacted him about having a party at the barn. Mesta stated in a Affidavit of Probable Cause filed Aug. 28 that he "Figured out what would take place."
According to the Humane Society of the United States, the roosters fight over food, territory or mates, but such fights are to establish dominance and seldom result in serious injury. This natural behavior is different from what happens in staged cockfights, where pairs of birds, bred for maximum aggressiveness, and sometimes given steroids or other drugs to make them more successful fighters, are forced to fight until a winner is declared. If the birds won't fight the handlers force them face each other until they do.
The roosters are equipped with razor-sharp blades called gaffs in place of natural spurs and as the roosters 'dance' the blades will cut the birds. Fights are to the death, usually.
"There are lots of people involved in cockfights," said Pat Wagner, head of National Illegal Animal Fights, part of the humane society. "Cockfighting is legal in parts of New Mexico and all of Louisiana."
If convicted, spectators could face up to a year in the state penitentiary and $2,000 up to $25,000 in fines.
Pollock, if convicted, would face one year to ten years in prison and a fine not less then $2000 and up to $25000, for each conviction.
