QUICK END URGED FOR FIGHTING FOWLS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

Some fighting roosters used to leading a ``coddled'' lifestyle could be placed on Death Row if a Palmdale senator wins approval of a bill that would allow quicker destruction of the animals.

The fighting cocks, confiscated during raids on gambling operations, are costing the taxpayers an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 a year while their owners go to trial, and Sheriff Sherman Block says the free ride has to stop.

Every year, some 200 to 300 fighting roosters are sent to the county animal shelter in Baldwin Park, with room and board costing about $2 each a day.

``It's not uncommon for us to have them for five, six, seven months,'' said Judy Meraz, regional director for the Los Angeles County Animal Control Department.

By law, the confiscated birds cannot be destroyed until their owners are found guilty of cockfighting.

But under Senate Bill 196 by state Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, the birds could be destroyed by lethal injection under court order two months after they are seized.

If the owner is eventually found not guilty, he would be paid his bird's market value - which for a champion can be up to several hundred dollars. If found guilty, he could be charged the cost of its upkeep.

Knight, R-Palmdale, introduced the bill at the request of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Popular in Latin America and the Philippines, and legal in five U.S. states - but not California - cockfighting pits one rooster against another, with spectators betting on which bird will win. The fights are sometimes made bloodier by strapping razor-sharp blades to the birds' feet.

Fighting cocks are hybrid jungle fowl, leaner than barnyard varieties, whose natural inclination to fight other roosters is enhanced by intense training that boosts their endurance.

Because the birds are used to gentler treatment than they receive at the shelter, the bill's purpose is as much humanitarian as economic, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy C.R. Beals, who helped draft the law.

``The birds are, to say the least, coddled,'' said Beals, a vice detective who investigates cockfighting and dog-fighting.

``They are referred to as `feathered warriors' and `feathered gladiators.' They are - especially in the last couple weeks before a fight - handled on a daily basis. They're trained, their diet is regulated, their weight is maintained.''

At the Baldwin Park shelter, fighting cocks are kept in individual cages, shielded from each other's view by extended plank sides.

``If they aren't, they will launch themselves from one side of the cage against the partition to try to get at the bird in the cage next to it,'' Beals said.

County animal control keeps no statistics on the annual cost of caring for fighting cocks - which are lumped in department records with potbellied pigs and horses as ``other animals.''

But spokesman Bob Ballenger estimated that the total could reach $30,000 to $50,000 a year.

``If you have several dozen to 100 birds, that's lot of work - somebody has to spend a lot of time,'' Ballenger said.

On Thursday, the Baldwin Park shelter held about 60 fighting cocks - a typical number, officials say, although at times it has held more than 120.

``We just got about 18 in yesterday from our Downey office from the East Los Angeles area, and we had about 40 from the Lancaster area before that,'' Meraz said.

The Lancaster birds have been there since a Nov. 4 raid in the rural Antelope Acres area. An additional 20 or 25 birds that came in from Lancaster on Nov. 30 were destroyed Dec. 26, she said.

In 1995, the Baldwin Park shelter took in 125 birds - roosters, hens and chicks - from a single Azusa raid. And it was stuck with the birds for more than a year, because the owner's misdemeanor bird-fighting case took second priority to a federal drug charge against the suspect.

In the city of Los Angeles, which has its own animal control agency, fighting cocks are not brought into shelters.

``We go in and impound them at the location where they are, and then go out there and care for them and feed them and provide them medical attention. We do not bring them into the shelter,'' said city animal control spokesman Peter Persic.

Knight's chief of staff, Matt Rexroad, said he expects little opposition to the measure.

``I don't think the bill should have any problems, I really don't,'' Rexroad said. ``It's just good common sense.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Animal control Officer Armando Gamont controls a fighting rooster, one of 60 housed at a Baldwin Park shelter.

(2) Confiscated fowl peer from cages at a Baldwin Park shelter.

Evan Yee/Daily News