This weekend, law enforcement officials in New York state played their own version of the popular mobile game starring furious fowls.

Instead of flinging birds at pigs hidden in poorly-constructed wooden/glass buildings, law enforcement people conducted a raid called Operation Angry Birds across several New York boroughs that smashed a cockfighting syndicate. The raid yielded nine arrests and freed over 3 000 incarcerated roosters, according to the New York Daily News.

Cockfighting is the act of pitting two roosters against one another in mortal combat; the winner is the rooster that walks away from the fight, the loser either badly injured, or dead. Roosters are bred specifically to take part and the conditions they are kept in are generally pretty bad, making for an all-round unhygienic practice, not to mention cruel. Betting often follows cockfighting, and it’s just as illegal, so it’s no surprise that law enforcement doesn’t take too kindly to it.

All the criminal and animal cruelty stuff aside, it’s just so cool that Angry Birds’ fame has reached the point where it’s being used in code names for law enforcement operations. The only thing that could have made it even better is if pigs were somehow involved, but you can’t have it all.

[Image: Uangrybirdsgame.com]