Don't keep your roosters on a leash.
That's the lesson Dade City's Jorge Tejada learned Tuesday after a witness saw him encourage his rooster, which had a leash tied around its leg, to fight another neighborhood rooster, according to Pasco County arrest records.
After seeing the grappling fowl, the witness retrieved the captive rooster from Tejada, 46, and contacted the sheriff's office.
When deputies searched Tejada's home, they found 13 more roosters, all in separate cages, and all with their combs cut off — typical for fighting roosters, Tejada's arrest affidavit said.
Tejada, a Texas-born lawn care worker, was subsequently arrested and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals. He was being held on $5,000 bail Wednesday at the Land O'Lakes Detention Center.