By Jordan Wilcox
Assistant Publisher
Anyone who’s ever been to Hopkins knows that the sounds of barnyard animals are not an auditory anomaly. Due to the area’s strong dairy farming industry, cows can be heard all day long.
However, on Saturday, July 26, residents were startled by a different type of barnyard crowing – the sound of injured roosters in distress. A sound that was later attributed to an illegal cockfighting ring, held at 2534 23rd Street, just south of Hopkins.
Cockfighting is a blood sport where two gamecocks, or roosters, are forced to fight to the death for the entertainment and gambling of spectators. The birds are typically drugged for aggression, weighted, and outfitted with bladed weapons. It’s outlawed in all 50 states, but is still viewed by some groups as part of their cultural heritage and a deeply rooted tradition.
Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) and Animal Wellness Action are two activist groups pushing for the end of cockfighting nationwide. According to Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, both groups operate complex networks of informants who alert them of such events and employ undercover drone surveillance and online research of the illegal operations.
Steve Hindi, founder and president of SHARK, said that the Hopkins tip came through his group’s anonymous hotline.
After receiving the tip, SHARK quickly sent a drone up in the air, capturing footage that they released on their Facebook page. The video shows criminals bringing live birds in for the fight, then bringing the dead birds out, and numerous live birds being violently handled and thrown into a wheelbarrow with dying birds, while getting savagely attacked and mutilated with various instruments.
Both groups also contacted the Allegan County Sheriff’s office multiple times that day, but were told that “they didn’t have enough officers to respond,” and have known about the “illegal cockfighting pit for a couple weeks now.”
This response enraged Hindi and Pacelle. Hindi questioned why they hadn’t already raided the cockfight and said that “they should have brought officers in from other agencies if they needed extra manpower.”
When asked for comment by the Detroit Free Press, Undersheriff Michael Larson acknowledged that “the initial response was not what we had hoped for,” but that the police response was “ not malicious or intentionally negligent.”
Cockfighting is a felony in Michigan that can carry up to four years in prison.
The Sheriff’s Office is currently working on a thorough investigation, which will be turned over to the prosecuting attorney once completed.
In an interview with WWMT News Channel 3, Hindi stated that he personally hopes anyone involved with this is “imprisoned for a very long time because they are a cancer to any society that they’re part of. They need some serious, serious, long-term mental counseling.”
He and Pacelle are urging residents to call upon Prosecuting Attorney Villar and Sheriff Baker to work together immediately to investigate, identify, and charge anyone who participated in these crimes.
I learned something from both the article and from the comments. I googled this phrase to get more background: “cock fighting is a part of what cultural heritage?”
“It’s outlawed in all 50 states, but is still viewed by some groups as part of their cultural heritage and a deeply rooted tradition.”
Obviously not Americans, so who are these “some groups”?
“He and Pacelle are urging residents to call upon Prosecuting Attorney Villar and Sheriff Baker to work together immediately to investigate, identify, and charge anyone who participated in these crimes.”
And then deported.
Prosecuting Attorney Villar and Sheriff Baker, Please work together immediately to investigate, identify, and charge anyone who participated in illegal cockfighting in Hopkins, MI on 7/26/25.