(Photo courtesy of Local 6 News)  About 80 birds were confiscated when sheriff's deputies found an apparent cockfighting operation set up in a Central Florida back yard.

Deputies said they followed an anonymous tip to animal neglect to a home on 8th Street in Bithlo and found a blood-splattered fighting ring in a back yard along with the roosters.

Their leg shanks have been shaved and the feathers have been removed," animal services worker Kimberley Duncan said. "Those are all signs of fighting cocks."

"We identified and located log books that detail this individual's history of breeding birds, selling birds and fighting birds -- which go back as far as 1999," Orange County sheriff's Det. Rick Broxton said.

  (Photo courtesy of Fox 35 News) Carlos Ramos, 47, was arrested in connection with the discovery.

"I believe he was actively fighting birds here on the property," Broxton said. "How big it was, I don't know. Usually with the fights, there is gambling and there is other illegal activity -- some drug use."

The pool-shaped cockfighting ring was found in a back yard, officers said.

Local 6 showed deputies taking armfuls of evidence from the home.

Update 7/16/08:

  (Photo courtesy of Central Florida News 13)    The makeshift rooseter-fighting ring was a fiberglass pool liner covered with hay.  Blood was also found splattered on the walls of the shed in back of Ramos' mobile home on 8th Street.

  (Photo courtesy of Central Florida News 13)  The roosters were plucked and had their feathers shaved.  Others had their combs cut, which is consistent with cockfighting.   Spurs, which are attached to the birds legs for fighting along with log books documenting sales and fights were also found.

Ramos has a history of animal cruelty and cockfighting since 1999.

Reference

Local 6 News

Fox News

MyFoxOrlando

WCTV Eyewitness News

WESH 2 News

Central Florida News 13