January 29, 2022

Hello Friends,

Last weekend was a game-changer in our Crush Cockfighting campaign! We went after three cockfight pits in Kentucky and persuaded the Kentucky State Police Post 9 to take action against two of them. While we were disappointed that not all three were dealt with, this was actually a much higher response than we’ve had in the past.

On Friday night, CJ’s pit (pictured below), a long-running cockfight location run by a lifelong cockfighter named Rick Johnson (pictured on the right), held what was an extraordinarily small event.

The tiny size of the event may even have something to do with why the state police did not act. We were concerned that the lack of action on Friday night might be an indicator for the rest of the weekend, but fortunately, that was not the case.

Thanks to your calls on Saturday night, the state police closed down a cockfight at the infamous Laurel Creek pit before it even began! Laurel Creek was run by Tim Sizemore (pictured below), an infamous and lifelong cockfighter. Sizemore may be the most influential cockfighter in Kentucky.

Sizemore was until recently running the equally infamous Blackberry pit, which we exposed for involvement with prostitution. That exposure resulted in Sizemore being expelled from running Blackberry, so he decided to try reopening Laurel Creek, which had been shut down due to our exposure in June 2020.

The action against Sizemore and Laurel Creek had an immediate effect on Charlie's cockfight pit, which is in located Martin County. A planned Sunday morning fight fell apart before it even began. People were there, but the word was out about Laurel Creek. People were afraid that if the SHARK team was in Kentucky, we just might have our eye on Charlie's - AND WE DID!!!

Our SHARK drones were watching Charlie's the whole time. We called the police, and that really pushed things over the edge. Even though the police didn’t go past the gate at the front of the property (see below), the cockfighters’ nerves were shot, and they broke the event up. This has major, major significance!



We have reached a new threshold in our fight against cockfighting with two cockfight takedowns in one weekend! While we still have a very long way to go in our battle to stop illegal cockfights nationwide, this is an enormous improvement from just a year and a half ago, when we first started exposing active cockfight pits.

In June of 2020, we’d call the police, and they wouldn’t even respond. They would actually make excuses for not taking action. While there is still plenty of resistance from some state police posts, everyone in Kentucky seems to realize that, unlike animal protection groups in the past, SHARK will not be quitting! Not now - not ever. We named this campaign "Crush Cockfighting" for a reason.

The key now is to gather a large team of caring people - the SHARK Active Response Team - who are ready to respond when an active cockfight is identified. We will send out an update and post on our social media so you can share with everyone you know. The action is simply to contact the Kentucky State Police post, or whatever law enforcement agency that is responsible for the area of a particular cockfight pit.

Make a call, and let them know that you know what is going on. We’ll give you the cockfight pit name and location, as well as any relevant details. Some people think that this doesn’t do anything, but it absolutely does! Kentucky has been something of a bubble apart from the rest of the world. We’re breaking that bubble, and letting Kentucky feel either the scorn or admiration of the rest of the country and even the world, depending on what they do or do not do.

Cockfighting is illegal everywhere in the United States, including the US Territories. Cockfighting has been illegal by both state and federal laws for years and years. It is important to be clear about something. It is only because our own side has not been active in demanding enforcement of the laws against cockfighting, that the activity is as prolific as it is.

Yes, the cockfighters are bad people, but there are lots of bad people. Yes, cockfighters are protected by corrupt law enforcement in many cases, especially in Kentucky. Again, there has been corrupt law enforcement protecting other criminals - drug dealers for instance - forever. So then it boils down to, what are WE doing about it?

In the case of SHARK, we are exposing the cockfighters and their locations, and we’re exposing the law enforcement and/or politicians who protect them. We’ll expose anyone who stands between us and the welfare of the animals we are focused on protecting.

Friends, I need your involvement in this. I want you to be part of SHARK’s Active Response Team. I need for you to be ready to call law enforcement when we are actively in the field, fighting to stop a cockfight that is planned within the next few days, or is actively in progress at the moment. There has never been such a time to deal a blow to cockfighting as there is RIGHT NOW!

If possible, please give us financial support. We are fighting cockfighting nationwide, in addition to our other regular issues, such as rodeos, pigeon shoots, cruel beagle breeding prisons and other issues we work on with other organizations, such as marine animals and captivity of exotic animals, etc. If you don’t know about the enormous strides and successes we have gained with these issues, please visit our “Successes” page on our website here. 












                                                
There isn’t another organization in the world that is doing what SHARK does, the way SHARK does it. Our drones (pictured below), our undercover cameras, long-range cameras, night vision cameras, all are designed to take down animal abusers like they’ve never been taken down before.

I want you on our team, and I want you to feel the same thrill of victories for our animals that I feel. It is a feeling that can’t be bought. Not even a billionaire can get the rush that we get when we bust an active cockfight and save lives. That kind of feeling can only be experienced with active participation. Join a team of winners. Join SHARK’s Active Response Team, and be part of the most elite team of animal protection in the world.