TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KMPH) -
As officers with the United States Humane Society walk through rows of birds trained to fight, they're disgusted.
"It's surreal to see this many," says a United States Humane Society officer.
Tulare County Deputies arrested a Visalia couple, Juan Carlos Gonzalez and his wife Leticia Gonzalez, with 388 fighting roosters. Officers were again stunned when they searched the couple's home.
Another Humane Society officer shakes her head in disbelief.
"The sheer number of animals that would have suffered by all of these," she says.
More than 1,100 cockfighting knives. Authorities say this is the most cockfighting knives ever found in the United States.
Cockfighting is a blood sport. Two roosters go beak to beak in a ring to fight. Often to the death. The knives like the ones found in the Visalia home are strapped to the birds' legs to do the most damage.
But because law enforcement officers and Animal Control raided this Visalia cockfighting operation in time, it became a rescue mission.
