Roosters Rescued; Cockfighting Den Busted

City officials rescued eight roosters and about a dozen chickens from a house in Fair Haven Heights, after discovering signs of a cockfighting ring beneath a Grand Avenue bar.

Cops arrested the alleged perpetrator of the ring at his 140 Russell St. home and charged him with eight counts of animal cruelty, a class D felony, one for each rooster.

After investigating the property, officials worked to close down Taino’s Cafe International at 656 Grand Ave. LCI and fire investigations reported finding health and building code violations in addition to signs of illegal betting and cockfighting.

Fire officials arrived at the bar Friday morning after receiving a call about smoke near the side of the building. After a brief inspection, they realized it was steam, not smoke. They called the owner to let them in to investigate, according to a fire marshal at the scene.

Descending a cramped stairwell to the lower level, they said, they found a small propane gas stove next to propane tanks — a fire code violation. In a larger room at the back, about 30 chairs surrounded a makeshift cockfighting ring, with loose chicken feathers still strewn inside.

Fire officials called in the police, health department and the Livable City Initiative, New Haven government’s neighborhoods anti-blight agency, when they realized the extent of the problem. The discovery followed another code-inspection-turned-dramatic-raid that occurred a day earlier in Dixwell.)

A small disordered bar at one end of the Grand Avenue establishment’s basement room sat above three large buckets and two boxes of unopened beers. Past the ring at the other end of the room, investigators found about 20 empty bottles of beer and a notepad with two names scribbled next to figures of 500.00, likely signaling illegal betting, police said.

The bar’s manager, Fernando Torres, said he had nothing to do with the cockfighting. Torres said he had allowed a friend to use the basement for a ​“family event” last weekend and had no idea what was going on.

Even without the roosters, officials said, Torres violated the fire code by hosting gatherings in the basement, which has only one entrance and one exit. He also made several changes to the site unauthorized by zoning or his liquor permit, including expanding the upstairs bar, putting in pool tables, removing a wall to create a larger upstairs space, officials charged.

Frank D’Amore, LCI’s deputy director, said Torres would likely lose the business and that the agency will discuss the matter with the owner of the property, Pat Palmieri.

Torres called in the alleged operator of the cockfights, who spoke to responding Officer Diego Quintero (pictured) and LCI Fair Haven/Wooster Square neighborhood specialist Laurie Lopez-Anastasio. The alleged operator first said he had only two roosters, then later upped the number to four.

He said he had a family gathering with about seven people for a family party last Saturday. He admitted to selling food and beer at the basement event.

Officials then visited 140 Russell St., where the roosters are kept. They found five poorly maintained chicken coops in the back, which were unheated and surrounded by little insulation. They found not two, not four, but eight roosters.

Some of the fighting roosters were missing eyes, apparently from previous fights.

LCI took the roosters, which will first go to animal control and then likely to a farm. LCI inspector Rick Mazzadra grabbed two roosters and tied their legs together with a rope, in order to transport them in his car.

None of the animals were left with the alleged operator, who was arrested immediately.

“It’s really bad. It’s freezing and this is not the way you coop chickens,” Lopez-Anastasio said. She said that had the operation not been stopped, the animals would have been fought until they were killed.