In May, Connecticut State Police arrested Elvin Miranda and Lisa Miranda for running a cockfighting operation at a dormant quarry in Tolland. This week, their animal cruelty charges were upgraded to felonies. They face charges for professional gambling, operating a gambling premises, and risk of injury to a minor. The case has been transferred to Hartford Superior Court.

But Elvin and Lisa Miranda did not run this event alone. One hundred people were arrested at the scene.

One hundred people drove to a remote quarry, paid to watch roosters tear each other apart, and placed bets on the outcome. They were not passive bystanders. They were the audience that made this event profitable. Without them, there is no cockfighting operation. Without the money they brought, there is no professional gambling charge. They funded it. They enabled it. They cheered for it.

Cockfighting is not a spectator sport where watching is somehow separate from participating. Every person in that quarry contributed to the suffering of those animals. Connecticut law recognizes attending cockfighting as a crime. The question is whether prosecutors will treat it that way.

The organizers are facing felonies. The attendees must face real consequences too — not citations, not fines, not charges that disappear. Every one of the 100 people arrested at that quarry should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Connecticut law.

We're calling on the Tolland Judicial District State's Attorney's Office to pursue meaningful criminal charges against every person arrested at the Tolland cockfighting event and send a clear message that attending animal cruelty is not a victimless crime.