Kentucky State Police Corruption Exposed in Pike County:
Troop 9 Refuses to Shut Down Criminal Cockfighting Pit
Kentucky State Police were notified of a large cockfighting pit called, “Hawk’s Nest,” in Pike County that took place on Saturday, February 6th.
Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states.
The KY State Police Troop 9 failed to shutdown this major criminal cockfighting operation which left animal advocates in shock. The failure occurred in spite of Troop 9 having a printed schedule in advance of Saturday’s illegal event.
Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) and California-based Humane Farming Association (HFA) are working together to wage a nationwide campaign to expose and shutdown cockfighting pits in Kentucky.
On Friday, February 5th, SHARK provided the Kentucky state police with a printed schedule which spans from November 2020 to March 2021. It included three phone numbers for the person running the fights.
schedule of cockfights at Hawk’s Nest in Kentucky.
photo courtesy of SHARK
That same day, a SHARK investigator spoke to Operations Lieutenant Chris Hicks at Troop 9, who assured him that troopers would be out the next day. Lt. Hicks stated, “I’ll make sure we’ll have group of troopers go out there tomorrow and see what they can find out, see if they can hopefully catch them in the act.”
The next fight was set for the following day, Saturday, Feb. 6. All of this was presented to the KY State Police headquarters in Frankfurt, which forwarded it to Troop 9 in Pike County.
The only thing that happened to some of the attendees at the cockfighting pit was receiving traffic citations by the troopers according to Sgt. Kenneth Saylor from Troop 9 as told to SHARK.
When we asked if they had shutdown the cockfight, Sgt. Saylor answered, “Sir, I am sure it wasn’t shutdown…whatever was going on up there.” He also said, “There was a lot of vehicles that went into the property, I don’t think there were any that came back out.”
“We presented the state police with direct evidence that Hawk’s Nest was an active cockfighting pit, but the police utterly failed to shutdown, or even investigate what is a clearly a major, ongoing, illegal criminal operation,” states SHARK President Steve Hindi. “There is no excuse whatsoever for this inaction.”
SHARK and HFA are demanding a comprehensive investigation into Post 9 personnel, with appropriate disciplinary and/or criminal action taken against any and all of the personnel involved.
Why aren’t the police doing anything about this illegal animal abuse in Kentucky? What’s wrong with this “picture?”
Cockfighting is a barbaric practice which typically involves someone attaching small blades to the feet of two cockerels who fight until one of them is either dead, or can no longer fight due to serious injuries. Other criminal activity also occurs at these “fights” including drug dealing, illegal gambling, illegal firearms and gang activity.
Here is the actual phone call between SHARK and Sgt. Kenneth Saylor, Kentucky State Police Troop 9.
Tina Evangelista-Eppenstein is a television talk show host, speaker, writer, and an unabashed animal advocate. Her love for animals and quest for the hard truth is what drives her passion for all things animals. She hosts the television show, “A Close Up Look at Animal Welfare Issues.” She adores her tripawd, Brody, who was a formerly abused pup who lost his leg because of cruelty inflicted upon him. If you’d like Tina to talk to your group or have a story, please email her at tevangelistaepp@yahoo.com. Like https:www.facebook.com/ACloseUpLookatAnimalWelfareIssues and be sure to check out AnimalWelfareIssues.com
Unbelievable. Someone getting paid off ?
Hi Jan,
I have no idea but I know some suspect this. This is ridiculous. It doesn’t seem like the law matters in some cases of animal abuse! So wrong! They need to be held accountable- the abusers and the police for allowing it to continue.
Thanks.
Lazy and they don’t object to animal cruelty.
exactamundo! What do you expect from this state? It doesn’t make it right. I guess lazy too.