Exposed: Etsy and eBay Selling Deadly Cockfighting Knives and Gaffs

After our investigators uncovered that Etsy was illegally allowing its platform to be used for trafficking cockfighting implements—razor-sharp weapons strapped to birds’ legs to intensify bloodletting and cruelty—the company responded and removed the contraband earlier this month.

But our investigation uncovered an even more consequential lawbreaker: eBay.

We alerted executives and lawyers at the Silicon Valley e-commerce giant. They are refusing to act, out of either stubbornness or indifference. (See our news story on the Center for a Humane Economy investigation here.)

Mind you, trafficking in cockfighting weapons is a federal felony and also a crime in California, where the company is headquartered.

Let me make one thing clear: the Center for a Humane Economy won’t tolerate this commercial profiteering and collusion with the cockfighting clan. Not for one more month, or week, or day. We will take eBay to court, and we will hold their conduct up to a national spotlight.

Now, we are sounding the alarm to you, just as the holiday gift season begins. Don’t patronize a company that ignores warnings that it’s breaking the law and enabling the worst kinds of malicious cruelty. 

Law Enforcement Cracks Down on Cockfighting Rings Across the U.S.

The cockfighting “season” traditionally opens right around Thanksgiving, after the roosters have completed their molt. The cockfighters strap on the blades and ice picks, and bloodletting is the consequence.

In recent days, the Center for a Humane Economy (Animal Wellness Action) and our partners at Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) gave the cockfighters a taste of what’s in store for them this cockfighting season. Just days ago:

• Texas Cockfighting Raid. Authorities raided a large cockfighting operation in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, arresting participants and seizing birds and weapons.

• Louisiana Sheriff’s Office Busts Illegal Operation. The Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office disbanded a fighting operation, making arrests and finding fighting roosters in cages.

• West Virginia Event Dismantled. Law enforcement broke up a major cockfighting event involving dozens of people, sending a clear message that the old days of impunity are over.

• Connecticut Bust: 100+ Attendees. West Haven police arrested seven people and seized more than 30 roosters after busting an illegal cockfighting event with well over 100 attendees.

• Arizona Cockfighting Ring Disrupted. In Pinal County, deputies made arrests tied to an illegal cockfighting ring, dismantling a network that had been operating in the shadows.

The latest drumbeat of arrests and the shutdown of cockfighting derbies build on the dramatic step-up in enforcement we stirred last season, when we and our partners at SHARK helped take down key cockfighting leaders across the nation.

We are encouraging a growing impatience and intolerance for cockfighting among sheriffs, police, and prosecutors. The people who stage fights at pits across the nation or traffic in fighting birds or fighting implements are no longer getting a free pass or a wink and a nod.

Law enforcement agencies across the country now understand that animal fighting is not a benign activity; it is a violent crime intertwined with broader community harms. And our investigations, reporting, and pressure campaigns are helping underscore this truth.

Why the FIGHT Act Is the Key to Ending Animal Fighting

But we aren’t satisfied with the long list of derbies shut down and cockfighters apprehended. That’s why we need the Fight Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Animal Trafficking (FIGHT) Act.

If enacted, this new national policy proposal will give us and law enforcement the tools to step up the investigations and arrests and even give private citizens a bigger role in dismantling dogfighting and cockfighting networks.

The FIGHT Act now has more than 1,000 endorsers from the realms of animal welfare, conservation, agriculture, gaming, and law enforcement.

In November, the Major County Sheriffs of America joined the National Sheriffs’ Association in endorsing the legislation. “The FIGHT Act would provide law enforcement with additional tools to deter and disrupt these operations—including closing loopholes related to the shipment of fighting animals, enhancing forfeiture authorities, and supporting civil action against offenders,” wrote Megan E. Noland, executive director of the MCSA to federal lawmakers.

And law enforcement leaders like Kyle Keller, deputy director of the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association, are echoing the urgency: “Animal fighting is not just animal cruelty; it is a public safety crisis. Cockfighting pits are often centers of gambling, narcotics, and violence, drawing offenders from across state lines.”

This is exactly why the FIGHT Act is so critical—it’s not just about protecting animals; it’s about protecting people from the criminal networks that spawn crime waves in our communities.

Your support makes this high-impact corporate, political, and field investigations work possible. You’re helping us expose criminal commerce, empower law enforcement, and create a “zero-tolerance approach” to staged animal fighting on every inch of U.S. soil.

Together, we’re building the legal framework, public pressure, and law enforcement assets that will pull up this cruelty by the root and never again let it settle into safe ground.

Please write to your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act.

And please support our multi-pronged campaign to stop the barbarism and savagery. We won’t relent, and we know you won’t either.

Please write to your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act.