On May 17, 2026, Connecticut State Police arrested 100 people and seized 273 birds from a cockfighting operation running out of the basement of a home in Tolland, Connecticut. The birds were in such poor condition that every single one had to be euthanized. More than $90,000 in cash was confiscated. Participants had traveled from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey to watch animals — fitted with razor blades — be forced to fight.

Elvin and Lisa Miranda are accused of running this operation for months, out of a residential neighborhood, with children present in the home. They were charged with cruelty to animals, professional gambling, operating a gambling premise, and risk of injury to a minor. They posted a $250,000 bond and walked out the same day.

That cannot be the end of this story.

Connecticut State Police Captain Kate Coney described the conditions where the chickens were kept as "deplorable." This was not a backyard dispute. It was a sustained, organized operation that profited from deliberate animal suffering — and it happened in someone's neighborhood, for months, while families lived next door.

We are calling on Connecticut prosecutors to pursue the maximum penalties available under state law for Elvin and Lisa Miranda. No plea deals that minimize the charges. No sentences that treat organized animal cruelty as a minor offense. The scale of this operation demands a response equal to it.

Sign to demand the court hold the Tolland cockfighting ring operators fully accountable.