Cops Bust Bloody Cock Fighting Training Coop

Man charged with running training facility on Keys property.

A Key West man was arrested Sunday for running a cock fighting training facility that prepared roosters for fights in Puerto Rico, police said.

Yamil Clavero Rodriguez, 39, was charged with training roosters for fighting after a caller reported to police that there was cockfighting taking place on the property he rents, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

When deputies responded to the property, they saw seven roosters tied up, their breast and leg feathers plucked and their wattles and combs cut off, procedures done so that the roosters can fight.

When Rodriguez saw the deputies, he began to panic and yelled, "The cops are here, the cops are here," and tried to lock the gate to the property, according to a police report.

Rodriguez and a group of men who were on the property were detained.

When police searched the rest of the property, they found 64 roosters as well as detachable talons, syringes, vitamins and "other rooster fighting paraphernalia," according to the report.

Deputies also found a fighting ring, 12 feet in diameter, which was "splattered with blood," according to the report.

Rodriguez allegedly told deputies he was training the roosters to fight and was planning to send them to Puerto Rico when they were trained. He was arrested and booked into jail.

The roosters were turned over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

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