Police in SW China investigating orphan ‘fight club’: report

Education authorities in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, have dispatched a team to try to recover orphans who have allegedly been adopted into a human ‘cockfighting’ ring, reports thepaper.cn.

This follows reports that two 14-year-old orphans from Liangshan had been adopted by the owner of a fight club in Sichuan’s capital, Chengdu, for the sole purpose of becoming cage fighters. Video has reportedly surfaced showing the teenagers fighting each other in an iron cage while surrounded by people yelling and taking pictures.

Local police in Chengdu have reportedly launched an investigation as well.

Officials with the Education Bureau in Butuo County, Liangshan, say the two teenagers will be returned to their boarding school if it’s proven they’ve been adopted for the sole purpose of becoming fighters.

Local authorities in Liangshan have also ordered investigations to determine if others may have been adopted from the city by the same owner of the ‘fight club.’

The man who adopted the teenagers is reportedly a military veteran who has taken in around 400 children since 2000.

The man who is in charge of the club responded that the previous reports of the club displayed incomplete information.