Upson police arrested 44 people Saturday at what they say was a cockfight, according to Channel 2 Action News.
The Upson County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of ongoing chicken fights at 2015 Atwater Road, but police arrived before the fight began, the station said.
Sheriff Dan Kilgore told Channel 2 police found chicken fighting gaffs, materials to attach the gaffs to the chickens’ legs and a gambling “weigh-in board” located near a “fighting pit” on the property, where the crowd was gathered. Dried blood was visible on some of the gaffs, Kilgore said.
Signs on the property said “Hilltop Poulty Show,” but Kilgore said he believed a “day of cockfighting” was about to take place.
The people in the crowd came from Thomaston, Macon, Eatonton, Carrollton, Butler, Covington, Griffin and other Georgia counties. A Jacksonville, Florida, man was also arrested.
One of the adults brought his 15-year-old grandson, who was taken to the Sheriff’s Office and released to a relative. His information will be referred to the juvenile court system.
The adults were each charged with criminal attempt to commit cruelty to animals, which is a misdemeanor. Bond was set at $1,000 each.
“I think we were just a little too early in arriving,” Kilgore told Channel 2. “If we were an hour later, we would have found a completely different set of circumstances.”
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