Fight to the Death: Illegal Canary Fighting Ring Broken Up

People forcing birds and animals into the blood sport of fights to the death is nothing new. We’ve all heard of dog and cock fights, but canary fighting?

Police in the small town of Shelton, Connecticut, seized more than 100 of the small songbirds and arrested 19 people for their alleged connection to a canary fighting operation. Those arrested were preparing to fight the birds yesterday morning. Mostly canaries are thought of as small pet songbirds that are confined to gilded cages but during mating season, they can become aggressive and fight each other for mating rights. Neighbors were surprised by the arrests and said they had no idea that such a thing was going on in the house where the arrests and fighting was taking place. Names of those arrested were not released. In a related story, Connecticut authorities offered people the opportunity to turn in illegally owned pets without fear of penalties on July 25. It was the state’s first exotic animal amnesty day. Fifteen boa constrictors, 15 pythons including an 8-foot albino Burmese python, seven alligators, a small monkey, a rattlesnake and an anaconda were turned in.