Sussex cockfight operation busted (From The Argus)
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Sussex cockfight operation busted
9:48am Monday 15th October 2012 in News By Neil Vowles
A Sussex father and son are facing jail following the discovery of “one of Britain’s biggest cockfighting operations”.
Mark Giles Senior and his son, also called Mark Giles, could be sentenced to up to six months in prison after pleading guilty to 19 animal cruelty charges between them.
The operation was discovered by an RSPCA investigation which revealed two farms in Billingshurst run by Mark Giles, 48, and his son, aged 26, had been used to train hundreds of cockerels to fight each other.
During the raids at the pair’s homes in Linfold Road in Strood Green, Billingshurst, and Marringdean Road, Billingshurst, RSPCA staff, supported by Sussex Police officers, uncovered a cockfighting pit.
Officers seized mobile phone footage of cockfights taking place on the farm, empty steroid vials and diet supplements and dozens of medievallooking metal spurs designed to be attached to the bird’s feet.
A Portakabin full of cockfighting paraphernalia including magazines from around the world dating back 20 years was also discovered.
RSPCA officers said they are not ruling out the possibility the farmwas used for cockfights in front of crowds of spectators – although no firm evidence was found to prove this.
Officers also said the scale of the operation meant it must have been running for years undetected with neighbours oblivious to what was going on just a few hundred feet away from them.
Many of the 500 animals discovered at the farm, including 97mature fighting cocks, will have to be put down because they are too aggressive to be rehomed with other cockerels.
Up to a dozen officers from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, the animal charity’s equivalent of CID, raided the two farms in Billingshurst in spring last year.
The pair pleaded guilty to charges under the Animal Welfare Offences Act including causing unnecessary suffering to dozens of chickens at Mid SussexMagistrates’ Court last month.
They will be sentenced at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and an RSPCA spokesman said they could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to £20,000.
Andy Robbins from the RSPCA said: “You don’t come across set-ups like this every day, it’s not a regular occurrence. The type of set-up he had there could not have been established in just six months.”
Animal rights campaigner Sue Baumgardt, of Brighton Animal Action, said we could no longer “kid ourselves” that Britain was a nation of animal lovers if animal abusers were given just short jail sentences for their crimes.
She said: “Until the sentences are really screwed upwards to the point where people like this can go to jail for five years for doing horrendous cases of cruelty, people are just going to continue to take the risk.”
Paul Berry, chairman of Billingshurst Parish Council, said: “It’s horrifying to think that this is going on so locally. I’m very glad to hear that the authorities have got on top of this and have acted.”
One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s horrible to think what might be going on at the end of the road.”
Comments(26)
saveHOVE
says...
10:37am Mon 15 Oct 12
Jo Wadsworth
says...
10:42am Mon 15 Oct 12
saveHOVE wrote:Hi saveHOVE, the asterisks appear because you typed a word which is banned by our swearing filters.
How did "Like****," get into my text? It shouldn't be THERE! Weird gremlin strike!
Looking at the context, I think I can guess at the word, and although it isn't a swear word, it is commonly used by spammers trying to sell **** via our boards.
Dealing with idiots
says...
10:59am Mon 15 Oct 12
NickBrt
says...
11:13am Mon 15 Oct 12
NickBrt
says...
11:15am Mon 15 Oct 12
Jo Wadsworth
says...
11:23am Mon 15 Oct 12
NickBrt wrote:Hi Nick,
Hey Jo How come the Argus can say that word but I can't??!! (Cockeral)
for exactly the same reason I gave saveHOVE - our swear/spam filters think you might be selling pills to transform bantams into prize turkeys ;)
NickBrt
says...
11:35am Mon 15 Oct 12
Tailgaters Anonymous
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1:01pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Dire that people should get their kicks from allowing animal-kind to fight!!
lillylou
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1:33pm Mon 15 Oct 12
cookie_brighton
says...
1:35pm Mon 15 Oct 12
R.S.P.C.A..........W
HEN are you going to take action against the horse racing.
Every year we see horses die during the grand national.......this, to me, is just as cruel as anyone fighting cockerals.
sussexanarchist
says...
1:50pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Sorry saveHOVE, that isn't the case at all.
Some research points us in that direction, but a much larger volume of research does not.
'Violent computer games' have been around for almost forty years - violent films for 80 years and violent art and books for much, much longer.
Please don't try and twist this desperately sad case of animal cruelty to fit some anti-gaming agenda.
I've yet to see 'Advanced Henfighter' or 'Crow of Duty 5 - Modern Eggfare' on the shelves.
Fairfax Sakes
says...
3:05pm Mon 15 Oct 12
StyleCop
says...
3:07pm Mon 15 Oct 12
sussexanarchist wrote:not old enough to remember 'chucky egg' then...
"Research IS SHOWING that children using violent computer games creates a taste for violence off-screen. Like ****, the more you see, the more you want because you get used to what you see so you become desensitised." Sorry saveHOVE, that isn't the case at all. Some research points us in that direction, but a much larger volume of research does not. 'Violent computer games' have been around for almost forty years - violent films for 80 years and violent art and books for much, much longer. Please don't try and twist this desperately sad case of animal cruelty to fit some anti-gaming agenda. I've yet to see 'Advanced Henfighter' or 'Crow of Duty 5 - Modern Eggfare' on the shelves.
StyleCop
says...
3:10pm Mon 15 Oct 12
StyleCop
says...
3:11pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Old Ladys Gin
says...
3:11pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Ah well, never mind.
Dirk Von Roden
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4:08pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Nathan_Adler
says...
5:43pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Old Ladys Gin
says...
5:53pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Old Ladys Gin
says...
5:55pm Mon 15 Oct 12
yaddab
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9:40pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
11:01pm Mon 15 Oct 12
My name is Mark Giles and my son is called Mark Giles.
We is thick.
Cash Cow
says...
8:05am Tue 16 Oct 12
Maxwell's Ghost wrote:That comment made I laugh it did.
I can't read and I can't write, but I can drive a traaactor.
My name is Mark Giles and my son is called Mark Giles.
We is thick.
Baldseagull
says...
11:24am Tue 16 Oct 12
sussexanarchist wrote:If video games affected our behaviour, after pacman my generation should have spent their late teens/early twentys in darkened rooms listening to repetitive music and munching pills....wait a minute!
"Research IS SHOWING that children using violent computer games creates a taste for violence off-screen. Like ****, the more you see, the more you want because you get used to what you see so you become desensitised."
Sorry saveHOVE, that isn't the case at all.
Some research points us in that direction, but a much larger volume of research does not.
'Violent computer games' have been around for almost forty years - violent films for 80 years and violent art and books for much, much longer.
Please don't try and twist this desperately sad case of animal cruelty to fit some anti-gaming agenda.
I've yet to see 'Advanced Henfighter' or 'Crow of Duty 5 - Modern Eggfare' on the shelves.
cornwellc
says...
2:14pm Tue 16 Oct 12
Fairfax Sakes wrote:When i first looked at the title of the page, i did to be honest think it was a dodgy underground fight club in kemp town, although as i read on i realised it wasn't. Jokes asside, i think that this is totally disgusting and these people should be put away for a long time.. didn't the neightbours suspect anything when hundreds of cockerils did their morning call at 5am each day? the noise must have been terrible!
Oh God! This headline is there for the taking, and no-one has even touched it yet. Come on, please, someone!
saveHOVE says...
10:33am Mon 15 Oct 12
Research IS SHOWING that children using violent computer games creates a taste for violence off-screen. Like ****, the more you see, the more you want because you get used to what you see so you become desensitised.
What kind of a society is happy with creating violence junkies any more than drug, alcohol junkies? Only one that fails to recognise what 'trains' people into accepting it.
The military trains people into accepting violence but it doesn't train it out of them at the end of their need-to-do, does it? Same with the police.
They want an adrenalin hit? Try extreme sports instead. Train yourselves and not some animal.