Officers interrupt theft of roosters from shelter

Two men intent on stealing back a flock of cockfighting roosters from a Bakersfield animal shelter Friday had their middle-of-the-night plan interrupted by California Highway Patrol officers, authorities said.

The men were apprehended near the Bakersfield Animal Shelter carrying burlap sacks containing feathers, said Lt. Brad Wahl of the Bakersfield Police Department.

A check of their vehicle turned up cockfighting videos but no roosters, so the vehicle was impounded and the men were released, Wahl said.

The CHP officers were unaware that a day earlier 45 roosters had been removed from a home in the 2000 block of Trust Street by a police task force that was serving search warrants on a different matter, Wahl said.

However, the CHP officers did notify animal control officials of the suspicious activity. When animal control officers counted the impounded cocks, they discovered that 13 were missing, said Denise Haynes, division chief of Kern County Animal Control.

The cages were not locked so it would have been easy to retrieve the roosters once the thieves got over a barbed-wire fence that surrounds the shelter, Haynes said. A pair of bolt cutters was found near the cages.

“My guess is the CHP caught them on a return trip. They were coming back for more,” Haynes said.

The suspects are at large but detectives with the Police Department were investigating the thefts, Wahl said.

Haynes speculated that the thieves didn’t want to give up their warring roosters without a fight.

“One of my officers said these birds can cost up to $1,000 each if they have good bloodlines or a proven fight record. They lost of lot of money yesterday.”

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catherine.saillant@ latimes.com