A Kern County man attending a cockfight died after being stabbed in the leg by a bird that had a knife attached to its own limb.
The coroner said 35-year-old Jose Luis Ochoa was declared dead at the hospital about two hours after he suffered the injury in neighboring Tulare County on Jan. 30.
An autopsy last week concluded that Ochoa died of an accidental "sharp force injury'' to his right calf.
John Goodwin, director of animal cruelty policy for the Humane Society of the United States, told the Bakersfield Californian he was not surprised that a man had been killed.
"It's pretty rare, but I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often considering the knives they put on those birds," Goodwin told the Bakersfield Californian.
Sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt says it's unclear if a delay in seeking medical attention contributed to Ochoa's death. Tulare officials are investigating, and no arrests were made at the cockfight.
Cockfighting is a sport, illegal in the United States, in which specially bred roosters are put into a ring and encouraged to fight until one is incapacitated or killed.
