NORTHAMPTON — It was described by animal welfare workers as the state’s largest cockfighting bust in recent memory.
When the Northampton Police Department descended on Ravenwold Greenhouses at 1095 Florence Road two years ago on May 24, 2018 for a barn check, they discovered 423 roosters, hens and chicks living on the farm, allegedly suspected of being bred for the illegal blood sport of cockfighting.
Around 190 birds deemed too aggressive for rehabilitation were euthanized and nearly 200 eventually found new homes at sanctuaries and private homes.
Police in a May 29, 2018 Gazette article said criminal charges would likely be filed in the weeks following the discovery. But since then, there have been no public developments in the criminal investigation.
Northampton Police Detective Lt. Craig Kirouac said this week that the case is still being reviewed along with the Northwestern district attorney’s office. Kirouac said police are reviewing the totality of the already-collected evidence to see if there’s enough to file charges.
“We’re working on identifying the responsible parties,” Kirouac said.
When asked why it’s taken two years for any legal developments in the case, Kirouac said it was because police prioritized other cases that came up since.
“Active cases involving human victims take precedence,” he said.
Kirouac said police do not have reason to believe that property owner Paul Duga Jr., of Hatfield, or Richard Adams, the owner of Ravenwold Greenhouses, had knowledge of or were involved in the raising of the birds. Police also believe there was no cockfighting on the property, Kirouac said. Instead, he said, police believe the birds were being raised at the property under inhumane conditions for the purpose of cockfighting.
“It was a structure on their property that had been leased or rented to other individuals who had control of that building itself,” Kirouac said.
In a May 30, 2018 Gazette article, Duga denied any involvement in the farm other than ownership. Muddling the situation further, Adams told the Gazette that his brother, George, had rented out the shed-like structure on the property more than 20 years ago, but he died about a year and a half before the alleged cockfighting revelation.
“He told me, ‘Chicken Man 1,’ ‘Chicken Man 2,’ and ‘Chicken Man 3,’” Adams told the Gazette at the time. “And that’s all I ever knew.”
Adams also said at the time that he had planned to end the lease with “the chicken guys” as he had issues with their upkeep of the rented area.
During the city’s barn inspection which uncovered the birds, Northampton’s animal control officer reportedly found an unusual amount of roosters on the farm, “boxing gloves” that are placed over a rooster’s spur during training and a bag of medication and needles common to cockfighting. Some roosters had body modifications, and police also found a suspected training area splattered with blood.
Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states but Massachusetts was the first to outlaw it in 1836. Owning, possessing, or training animals for the purposes of fighting in the state could land a person up to five years in jail and a maximum fine of $1,000.
The blood sport has its roots in ancient India and China before spreading to Greece, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Gamecocks, sometimes with razors attached to their feet, are placed in a small arena to fight until one dies or is too injured to continue.
The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought the recovered birds to the MSPCA-Nevins Farm in Methuen in late May 2018. In addition to the 190 birds that were euthanized, the MSPCA had contacted 50 sanctuaries across the East Coast to find new homes for the remaining 200 or so birds.
The MSPCA declined to comment for this story.
Kirouac said the police have not kept the chicken case out of their sights. He said he hopes there will be a conclusion to whether charges will be filed within the next several months. Police had hoped to close the case before the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up, he said.
“We don’t want to see animals mistreated,” Kirouac said.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.