It's settled, then: The founding fathers were not, in fact, "actively involved" in cockfighting. With roosters.

More than 70 cockfighters were arrested overnight as part of Operation Angry Birds, a massive three-part raid that involved hundreds of cops and Department of Homeland Security officers.

Liberty County Sheriff's deputies yesterday raided a cockfighting operation in Dayton, Texas, after receiving an anonymous tip and when they arrived they found a children's party going on, with a waterslide and picnic table. The party scene, from MyFoxHouston:

A California man died last week after being "sliced" at a cockfight by a rooster with a knife attached to its leg. The stabbing appears to have occurred, like any pre-planned attack, in the commotion following a police raid. Now: I am not a cockfighting expert, but, if you are going to force animals to fight each other, it seems like you should not provide them with weaponry that can be used against you. Roosters are pretty scary even when they don't have knives! [Tulare Advance-Register; image via Shutterstock]

Cockfighting is apparently still huge in Texas, despite being illegal for decades and being extremely cruel and all that. The Texas Tribune tagged along with officers from Dallas Animal Services as they busted up a "medium-sized" cockfighting ring.

In a startlingly Post-like headline, the NYT reports that "Dominicans Say Cockfighting Is in Their Blood." The Sports section goes to the DR and everybody's all, "Mire, papi, but cockfighting is a noble sport in this country!" [NYT]

Potential tabloid sports shocker! The Post stumbled onto a YouTube video of Mets' pitching ace Pedro Martinez presiding over a cockfight in the Dominican Republic. In a sinister twist, the video has now been pulled, and the owner of the blog that posted it did not immediately respond to the Post's emails. WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED? The Daily News was lagging on the story as of early this morning, meaning the Post is bound to hype it up as much as possible while they still have the competitive advantage. Just look at how much mileage the Atlanta papers (and everybody else) got out of the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal. But ask yourself, before the hysteria strikes: Is this story really a big deal?

As usual, fascist freedom-hating killjoys at the Humane Society are out to ruin everyone's good time by threatening to sue Amazon.com unless the online retailer ceases selling subscriptions to Gamecock and Feathered Warrior magazines. While mailing cockfighting magazines might technically violate the interstate commerce restrictions of the Animal Welfare Act, Amazon is taking a brave stand for free speech and violent poultry by defying the Humane Society and continuing to accept orders for the mags. Both cockfighting titles are also practically historical artifacts — Feathered Warrior's been published since 1903. And Gamecock has enjoyed an explosion in popularity due to the "bad" publicity, climbing to #105 in Amazon's rankings of over 17,000 available titles. Charming as these magazines are, we're willing to bet Amazon stocks other magazines which are even more objectionable. Send in your contenders (with Amazon links) to tips@gawker.com.