Animal rights activist Steve Hindi was kicked and punched multiple times on the head and in the ribs by at least two people. He was treated for a broken rib and a head laceration that required six staples.
LIAM NEIMEYER: Members of an Illinois-based animal protection group say one of their members was assaulted and another was driven off the road recently after confronting a suspected cockfighting event in southeastern Ohio. Animal rights activist Steve Hindi said his group Showing Animals Respect & Kindness, or SHARK, received a tip from the group’s hotline about a cockfight planned in Lawrence County, Ohio. It is a felony in Ohio to engage in a cockfight. Hindi and another member approached the rural property on Jan. 3 where the suspected cockfighting event was said to be happening.
“We saw a really massive number of cars. This was the biggest cockfight I ever saw. And I’ve I’ve seen a number of them,” Hindi said. “What I did hear was roosters, and so that means it’s not a church revival. It’s a cockfight.” Hindi estimated there were hundreds of people at the property. He said he and other members of his group knew it was an illegal cockfight happening on the property because of the roosters they heard and the number of trailers on the property, suspected to be used to store roosters for cockfighting.
Hindi said when he and another SHARK member approached those on the property and told them that he thought an illegal cockfight was happening. They told him he was on private property and to leave. And that’s when, according to video, things turned ugly. The video published by SHARK in early January shows Hindi pulling out a drone and a man, wearing a black hoodie depicting a rooster on the back, knocking the drone controller out of Hindi’s hands. The video shows Hindi knocked to the ground, crying out in pain. He said he was kicked and punched multiple times on the head and in the ribs by at least two people.
Hindi said he walked away from the property and asked a man along the neighboring road if he had any cell phone coverage. He said a pickup truck then pulled up to him along the road, carrying two men who began assaulting him again. Hindi then decided after the second assault to hide in the nearby woods until another SHARK member could communicate to him via walkie talkie and pick him up. Hindi said he was taken to a hospital in Ironton, Ohio, where he was treated for a broken rib and a head laceration that required six staples. The video also shows another SHARK member allegedly being pursued by a pickup truck. The blue Hyundai is hit multiple times in the rear before being forced off the road, crashing into a ditch…
Hindi said he suspected the sheriff’s office knew about the cockfighting event because of the number of people at the event and the lack of restraint by those who assaulted him. “I mean, you can’t get any help from any county sheriff where cockfighting is ongoing because they’re all concerned about the votes,” Hindi said. “And this big operation, this really large operation happening on Sunday mornings in a way out of the way area of Lawrence County, they know what’s going on”… SHARK last year was trying to seek an investigation after two sheriff’s deputies in eastern Kentucky attended a cockfight but did not charge anyone for animal cruelty.
The Ohio Valley ReSource previously reported on a separate animal rights advocacy group’s investigation and report which claimed that Kentucky was a center for breeding birds for illegal cockfighting… Hindi said his group will continue to pursue appropriate charges to the fullest extent possible and to continue their work exposing cockfighting. “I frankly never thought that I was going to live this long. So every day for me is a gift. And every day is a good day to die. I believe in, we believe in what we’re doing,” Hindi said. SOURCE…
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