A New Jersey man is under arrest and his 25 fighting cocks and hens are dead following a raid on a central Jersey home.

Elbert Valverde, of Flemington, was ordered held in lieu of $20,000 bail yesterday on charges of possessing birds for cockfighting.

Frank Rizzo, police chief of the state Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, said the birds were euthanized because they were raised to fight and could not live among farm animals.