Rescued Chickens Will Be Put to Death

Animals Seized From Farms Deemed Too Aggressive to Adopt

Just days after officials said that more than 500 chickens had been rescued from the atrocities of the cockfighting arena, most of birds seized by Loudoun County authorities will face certain death anyway, as the county plans to euthanize them.

A Loudoun judge granted the county custody yesterday of the birds seized at two Lovettsville area farms, finding probable cause that they were being kept for use in animal fights.

But because the birds have been bred to be highly aggressive, cannot be housed with other chickens and carry various illnesses, adoption is not feasible, officials said. And after yesterday's custody hearings, officials with the county's Department of Animal Care and Control set out to the two farms to begin putting the birds down.

"It's a humane end, versus a very violent end, which is what they were destined for," said animal control spokeswoman Laura Rizer.

On Sunday, animal control officers seized more than 400 roosters and hens from a residence in the 38000 block of Sierra Lane. The next day, more than 100 fowl were seized at a nearby property in the 12000 block of Berlin Turnpike after a tip that game birds were being fought on the property, according to officials and court records.

Loudoun County General District Court Judge Dean S. Worcester granted custody of all the birds, most of which are roosters, to the county. In the Sierra Lane case, the property's resident, Osvaldo Salinas, consented to the seizure, and his attorney declined to comment after his hearing. The owner of the Berlin Turnpike property, Victor Juarez, was in Mexico for the holidays and had no representative present, officials said. Worcester granted custody of Juarez's animals to the county after hearing testimony about conditions on the property.

The birds there "have been and were intended to be used in animal fighting," Worcester said.

Officials said it is unclear whether the two operations are related. Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman said he is consulting with animal control officials about their investigations. "The two cases have some differing facts, so we'll just evaluate them independently," he said.

Mike Gast, a veterinarian who examined the chickens, said after the hearings that the roosters were extremely aggressive and were found at the Sierra Lane farm tethered to cages and barrels, spaced apart to keep the fowl from attacking one another. He testified that birds at the Berlin Turnpike residence were thin and anemic, some with parasites and with body parts clipped in apparent preparation for fighting.

According to court records, officers recovered several items at the Berlin Turnpike property common to the cockfighting world, including four "training mitts" -- miniature boxing gloves placed on the animals to test their strength in mock fights -- antibiotics, trophies, and gamecock books and magazines.

If animal fighting charges are filed, the threshold for guilt would be much lower than in previous cases in Virginia, said John Goodwin, manager of animal fighting issues for the Humane Society. State laws against the practice have taken effect in the wake of the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal, Goodwin said. The new laws prohibit the housing of animals with the intent to use them for fighting, regardless of whether gambling is connected, and animal fighting can now be prosecuted as a felony.

Goodwin supported the decision to euthanize the animals under these circumstances, saying that aggression had been bred into them for centuries, preventing rehabilitation, and that they would be spared from a vicious death.

"I point the finger of blame for these roosters having to die right in the face of the people who bred these animals for illegal purposes," Goodwin said. "I guarantee you [Loudoun authorities] do it with a heavy heart."