Selah drug raid yields 30 fighting roosters

SELAH, Wash. – Authorities who thought they were raiding a meth lab Friday morning instead found more than 30 fighting roosters and cockfighting equipment, a Washington State Patrol spokesman said.

They also arrested a 30-year-old Yakima man and seized more than $10,000 in cash, a small amount of methamphetamine, drug packaging equipment and a stolen gun, said State Patrol Sgt. O. Wilson. The raid occurred shortly after 8 a.m. in east Selah and was part of an ongoing investigation by the task force Wilson leads.

The Yakima County Sheriff’s Office runs county animal control operations and occasionally deals with cockfighting, sheriff’s spokesman John Durand said. “Right now, it’s not as prevalent as it was in the past,” he said.

Because fighting roosters can carry diseases, the seized birds are usually killed, Durand said, adding that cockfighting generally involves other criminal activity.

“When you’re dealing with cockfighting, you’re dealing with the gambling that goes along with that,” he said. “Drugs are usually involved with these things. Then, of course, you have the animal cruelty involved.”

Wilson said the suspect has been booked on charges of meth distribution and the investigation is ongoing.