A centuries-old blood sport is bustling in Texas, featuring weekend fights that include gambling, concession stands and even paid parking.

Dozens of cockfighting operations have sprung up in Harris County in recent years to support the illegal trade and they do business with little interference, animal-rights activists say.

Frustrated authorities say they're alarmed by the trend, but can't do much because local and state laws are weak and full of loopholes.

"I'm serious when I say cockfighting is an epidemic not only in Houston, but all over Texas," said Sgt. Mark Timmers, a Harris County Precinct 6 deputy constable who has seen a rise in breeding farms for roosters used in cockfighting.

On one recent day, Timmers visited a makeshift farm in northwest Houston that he suspects breeds fighting cocks. A rooster at his feet eyed him suspiciously before scratching the dirt in its small cage and letting loose a cock-a-doodle-doo, triggering a deafening, crowing frenzy from 300 more roosters.

With conspicuously bald heads and long, iridescent feathers, these alpha males — individually caged just out of pecking range — resembled fighting fish suspended in rows of plastic cups at a pet store.

No one knows for sure how many roosters are raised for cockfighting in Harris County.

Timmers said there's no official system to track the number of suspected farms or rings. And that's frustrating, he said, because cockfighting rings are often linked to gambling, drugs and guns.

Illegal in all states but Louisiana and New Mexico, cockfighting has deep roots in rural Texas and Cajun Louisiana.

"It's completely widespread in Texas because it's a cultural thing," said Howard Williams, 68, a Fort Worth breeder who has fought roosters for 50 years.

Observers say Latin American immigrants have increased its popularity in urban areas.

Culture clash

Cockfighting, like bullfighting, is a cultural tradition that is legal in Mexico.

"It's something you kind of grow up around that's kind of cool," said Houston rap artist Chingo Bling, who has seen cockfights in Houston and Mexico.

His 7-year-old pet rooster, Cleto, which the Hispanic rapper jokes is a cockfighting champion, figures prominently in his music and persona. Chingo's father bought Cleto from a breeder in southeast Houston.

Some Latinos, he said, admire the macho image of the outlaw cockfighter like a winning boxer.

"People want to be a champion ... we look up to the guy with the pair of ostrich boots and alligator belt; the guy whose rooster just won a hundred Gs on a fight," Chingo said.

Animal-rights activists contend the life of a fighting rooster is far from the cultural romanticism painted by Chingo.

Roosters are shorn of their combs and wattles, fitted with razor blades or ice picks and often injected with steroids or blood-clotting drugs before being forced to fight to the death.

"It's not a quaint pastime; it's a criminal cruel industry," said Ann Chynoweth of the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C.

The group recently persuaded Houston's Continental Airlines to stop shipping roosters to Guam, where cockfighting is a celebrated sport. A Humane Society investigation revealed that U.S. breeders shipped 6,400 roosters to Guam between 2003 and 2005. Nearly 10 percent of the shipments were from Texas.

The legislative push for tougher penalties in Texas has stalled.

"Current laws do not deter cockfighters, who can make thousands of dollars, either on a fight or on breeding," Chynoweth said.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office has not prosecuted a cockfighting case in recent history.

Narrow laws

"The only way we can prosecute someone is if we catch a person causing one animal to fight another," said Belinda Smith , an assistant district attorney.

Smith said she would like cockfighting laws broadened to make it possible to prosecute all involved.

"In dogfighting, I can prosecute people who sponsor the event; the landowners where the event is taking place; people participating in earnings; anyone who owns or trains a dog with intent to put in the event and even spectators," Smith said.

Participating as a spectator at a dogfight is a Class C misdemeanor. Texas law has no specific language for cockfighting spectators.

A person who breeds roosters in the city can be cited for keeping fowl for commercial use or violating health codes. County laws do not prohibit people from breeding, keeping or selling roosters.

Authorities say large-scale underground fights are increasingly popular.

In July, the Houston SPCA helped Nueces County authorities seize 100 roosters from a breeder who allegedly had held regular fights that drew hundreds of spectators to his barn.

"It's getting out of hand when you have paid parking, concession stands and children at these things," said Heidi Brasher, Houston SPCA spokeswoman.

Authorities say the larger cockfighting pits promote a criminal atmosphere that breeds violence.

In September, a betting dispute about the Needville cockfight ended when one man fired a gun at two other men, killing one. Jose Alfredo Morales, 32, of Los Fresnos, died at the scene.

The gunshots sent a crowd of at least 100 fleeing in their cars on the dusty back roads of Fort Bend County. By the time authorities arrived, no one could be arrested for cockfighting because the fight had ended.

Authorities also point to the November seizure of 400 fighting roosters outside Austin.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency discovered the roosters, a cockfighting pit, and dozens of fighting picks and razors while raiding Dogcatcher Farm after a two-year drug-smuggling investigation.

The owner, Noe Perez, 37, of Luling, bred the roosters and fought them in a large pit on his property, police said.

Perez was among 11 people indicted on charges of smuggling $250,000 worth of methamphetamine every month to the Austin area from Mexico.

The property also had an incubation area for chicks and a separate pit where dead roosters were burned after losing fights. The cockfights were drawing about 60 people every Sunday, authorities say.

Few victories

Timmers is just one of few law enforcement officers tasked with preventing animal cruelty in the Houston area. He said he has shut down a few breeders, often when he finds cockfighting paraphernalia like razors and syringes on properties.

But he rarely gets the chance to savor those victories for long.

"When I run them out of the city, they just find a new place in the county," Timmers said.