Cruel cockfighting operation as animals compelled run on ‘Ferris wheel’ treadmill

A cruel cockfighting operation was dismantled after Lincolnshire Police found fighting pits and a treadmill in a farm where birds had been kept in awful conditions

Two cruel cockfighters have been sentenced after the RSPCA busted their operation and uncovered they were training the animals on treadmills.

Hugh Steele, 53, and Douglas Price, 34, were found to have dozens of cockerels, hens and chicks in enclosures along with cockfighting items during a search of their premises in Lincolnshire last May. The RSPCA’s Special Operations Unit (SOU) also dismantled two fighting pits and seized several vehicles in an operation supported by police.

During the raid, investigators had found a “cockerel treadmill”, which was “cylindrical and in the shape of a Ferris wheel”, a spokesperson said. The charity said its investigation also found two dead chicks at the site and there was “little or no food or water” for the remaining animals, which were “kept in dark, cramped and dirty pens”.

Both men were handed 10-week jail terms, suspended for 12 months, at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. They have each been ordered to pay £1,000 costs and carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. The court heard the residential site in Beckingham, Lincs., was searched by investigators, Lincolnshire Police and two vets in May 2024.

It was described as a large gated plot with homes, a service road and outbuildings, with dozens of adult cockerels and hens, chicks and eggs, in wooden pens, enclosures or incubators, Lincolnshire Live reports.

At least one shed had no windows or artificial light and another had slatted metal bar doors for the birds to see out of. Two dead chicks also lay among a large group of day-old birds roaming a shed.

One officer said the building had a “portable cockfighting pit, large working exercise wheel, human treadmill, egg incubator, cockfighting venue t-shirts and veterinary products, many of which were foreign and some specifically related to cockfighting.”

Of the birds examined, a vet found only 41 had food available and 40 had access to clean water. Ten out of the 92 enclosures were too small, 46 were too dark and 77 unclean.

The court heard Steele was remorseful and bought the cockerels during Covid when he had throat cancer, and was not capable of caring for them.

Price also showed remorse, and although he accepted responsibility for causing the birds suffering, he said they were not his, he merely looked after them.

According to the RSPCA, cockerels used for fighting are bred specifically for the purpose and trained using practice birds, with muffs used to cover their sharp claws.

Those involved often fight birds to the death and a winning bird can become a “champion” after just a few victories.

A typical cockfight can last anywhere from several minutes to more than half an hour and usually results in the death of one or both birds. It has been illegal in England and Wales since 1835, but the RSPCA warned of a sharp surge in the blood sport in 2017.

After the case, a spokesperson for the RSPCA said: “All of these birds suffered because of the unsuitable conditions they were kept in and the purpose they were being kept for. It is a relief we were able to take them away from that and get them the kind of care, medical treatment, food and water they should have been provided with.”

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