Deputies make 8 arrests, find over 150 roosters during Maricopa County cockfighting bust

PHOENIX – Authorities busted a cockfighting operation in rural Maricopa County over the weekend.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a property near 170th Avenue and Hunt Highway in Rainbow Valley on Saturday after getting tips about in-progress cockfighting. Rainbow Valley is a sparsely populated community south of Goodyear.

People started fleeing the scene on foot and in vehicles, with some crashing through fences, MCSO said.

Deputies detained eight individuals and later booked them into jail for being present at a cockfight.

MCSO Animal Crimes Unit detectives executed a search warrant of the remote property and found the following items:

• 157 live roosters.
• An unspecified number of dead roosters.
• Two rings used for cockfighting.
• A dry-erase board apparently used to track bets.
• Gaffs, a type of knife that gets fastened to a fighting rooster’s leg.
• Other cockfighting paraphernalia.
• Four handguns, an AR-15 rifle and $18,000 in cash.

All 157 roosters were euthanized, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department said.

The investigation remains active.

In January, deputies busted a cockfighting operation in western Maricopa County near Tonopah.

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