John Culatto
LOCAL police have rescued eight mutilated birds used for cockfighting in the city of Malaga from the terrace of an abandoned building.
The police’s Nature Protection Group (Grupona) and the Municipal Zoological Centre liberated the cockerels from an unfinished block of apartments in the northern Granja Suarez neighbourhood.
The raid followed a police investigation into the illegal racket.
Of the eight Spanish fighting cockerels three were young males, four were adult males and one was female. They were kept in makeshift cages.
None of the semi-homeless people sheltering in the apartment block took responsibility for the cockerels.
Local police said that breeding fighting cocks is a noisy and smelly business, which is very disturbing to neighbours.
Not only is it illegal to hold animals in residential buildings, but special agricultural licences are needed to breed fighting cocks.
Without these permits, people who breed the birds can be fined up to €60,000.
Grupona has carried out 14 such raids, saving 72 birds and charging one person for mutilating the cockerels.
Cockfighting is expressly prohibited in Andalucia, with fines rising to as much as €30,000 for locations where the illegal events are held.
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