LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — The Lee County Sheriff's Office says a man was running a cockfighting ring in the backyard of a home on Texas Road in Lehigh Acres.
Detectives found six hens and five roosters, a training dummy and chicken ring.
LCSO says they also found training mitts, a weight sling, a digital scale, rubber bands, surgical tape and more at 127 Texas Road.
A police report says 54-year-old Carlos Antonio Alvarez, "trained, owned, and bred a domestic animal for cockfighting."
Neighbors down the road say it's normal to hear roosters crow in the area.
Devin McDonald says, "I hear roosters around, but I never knew where they were, so I didn't expect all that to happen."
Sam Garcia also lives on the same street and heard the roosters too.
Lee County Domestic Animal Services received a tip about the potential cockfighting ring and met up with LCSO a few days later at the home.
Watch Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
In body cam video from LCSO, you can see the wire cages the roosters were kept in and the ring the animals fought in.
Detectives say they were being trained to fight and video cameras, from inside the house, they say, show a rooster prepared for a fight.
When LCSO arrested Alvarez, he surrendered the animals.
Garcia says, "I seen them putting them all in cages."
She didn't know what was happening at the house only that she had seen some of the chickens before.
"Only seen two. They had got loose. They were running down here."
In the police report, a doctor says the animals injuries are "consistent with breeding for cockfights."
In a statement to Fox 4, Sheriff Carmine Marceno says,
"It sickens me that people will use animals for entertainment purposes. I promise to always protect those who cannot defend themselves, and that includes animals of all kind."
Jail records show Alvarez is out on bond, following his arrest.
