In August, Lee County deputies uncovered two separate cockfighting operations within weeks of each other. One came to light when deputies responding to a home fire in Buckingham found roosters, a fighting ring, and other signs of an active cockfighting setup on the property. The second turned up after deputies checked out a report in Lehigh Acres, where they found injured roosters kept in separate cages, a practice area, and gear used to condition birds for combat.

Between the two raids, authorities removed 136 birds total: about 83 from the Buckingham property and 53 from the Lehigh Acres property. Every one of those birds has since been humanely euthanized. Fighting roosters are bred and conditioned in ways that make them too dangerous to place in an ordinary backyard flock or family home, so once they're seized, there's rarely anywhere for them to go.

Two men face charges over these operations: Raul Cartaya Ramos, arrested in connection with the Buckingham property, and Yelandis Rodriguez Hernandez, arrested in connection with the Lehigh Acres property. Both are charged with animal cruelty.

Cockfighting is not a harmless hobby: it's an organized blood sport, and the animals bred for it never get the chance at a normal life that this outcome shows. The Lee County State Attorney's Office should pursue the maximum penalty the law allows in both cases, and the Lee County Sheriff's Office should keep investigating whether these two busts point to a larger cockfighting network operating in the county.

Sign this petition to demand full prosecution and continued investigation into Lee County's cockfighting rings, so the 136 birds euthanized this year didn't lose everything for nothing.