SHARK Summer 2021 Mailer Part I

Read the entire mailer HERE

Dear Friends and Supporters,

The first half of 2021 has proven to be a monumental time for SHARK’s work saving animals and stopping animal cruelty. As has been true since our beginnings more than 25 years ago, no one takes on more issues and gains more victories for animals than SHARK has. That’s why I am proud to send you this mailer showing you what your financial support for SHARK has accomplished.

Have you ever heard a rooster scream? We have, and it is a sound that we never want to be heard again.

Roosters are trained to fight and are forced into a small, dirty cell where there is no escape. When a bird wants to surrender, because they are exhausted and want to live, the cockfighter throws the bird back in to the fight, again and again, until they finally die. Then they are thrown away in trash cans. There is no mercy. There is no hope. There is only blood and death. This is why we work so hard against cockfighting.

On January 3rd, investigators from SHARK were in rural Lawrence County, OH. We were given a tip that James and Beckie Newcomb were going to hold a cockfight that day, and when two of our investigators arrived on-site, they counted hundreds of cars, making this an extraordinarily large criminal operation. Soon after I legally launched a drone to document the illegal activity.

Right after the drone was launched, one of the cockfighters became enraged. He grabbed the drone controller, smashed it and then proceeded to viciously assault me. A second cockfighter joined in, leaving me bloodied and battered with a broken rib, gash in my head, a separation in my back and many bruises and abrasions. They took my Sony camera and two body cams. What they didn’t know was that I had a hidden camera on me that recorded the attack.

I managed to walk away, down a hill. A few minutes later, the same two cockfighters tracked me down and beat me again. Anticipating another, possibly deadly attack, I moved into the woods to await help. A third SHARK investigator was able to retrieve me about an hour later, whereupon I was taken to a hospital.

While I was in the woods, the cockfighters turned their attention to our second investigator, who had left in a vehicle. The cockfighters rammed the vehicle from behind six times, finally sending the vehicle out of control. It violently crashed into a ditch. The vehicle was totaled.

Even though there was clear video of what happened, it took nearly two months for the two cockfighters to be charged. Attacker James Newcomb is now charged with three counts of felonious assault, theft and obstruction, while attacker Shannon Clark is charged with two count of felonious assault, theft, and obstruction. If found guilty, Newcomb and Clark could be sentenced to many years behind bars.

Top to bottom: James Newcomb as he rushed to attack Steve. The totaled SUV that was run off the road. Steve in the hospital after the attack

Our next encounter with the Newcomb family happened on January 30. We had another tip that they were going to hold a cockfight. We had two teams in OH One was near the property where the cockfight was going to happen, and the second team was at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office headquarters. Once the first team confirmed there was going to be a fight, the second team walked into the sheriff's headquarters and reported it.

The cockfighters got word of our efforts, shut down and ran away as fast as they could, almost certainly before the fighting even started. Given that shutting down cruel cockfights and keeping birds from being killed is our main goal, this is a major victory. As for the cockfighters, they lost a lot of money.

Our most recent encounter with the Newcombs happened on July 18th, when they held another cockfight on their property. James Newcomb has been out on bond, meaning that holding an illegal event was a violation. Thanks to the evidence we have of the cockfight, we are currently working on getting his bond revoked and having him sent to jail.

A deputy from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department went to the Newcomb’s property after we called the cockfight in. Although the deputy claimed that he knocked on the door and that there was no contact, we know that he never left his car and had actually spoken to both James and Beckie Newcomb. This shows complicity between the Sheriff’s Department and the cockfighters.

The Newcombs have been holding illegal cockfights for more than a decade and now we know why they have gotten away with it; the Sheriff's Department has given them its blessing to continue to break the law. This type of corruption is why cockfighting still happens. SHARK is calling for an investigation into the Newcombs, the deputy and the entire Sheriff’s Department.