Animal Groups Express Dismay About Weak Penalties Meted Out to Cockfighting Pit Operator, Say Sentence Falls Short of Seriousness of Crime

Louisville, KY — Two national animal welfare groups say a federal judge came up short when he declined to impose any prison time for a cockfighting pit operator in eastern Kentucky.

Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves handed down a sentence that included no prison time but instead just eight months of home detention to Isom, Ky., resident Robert Dwane Baker, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit animal fighting. The judge also ordered Baker to dismantle the fighting pit and forfeit $85,395. The venue, which could hold 500 people, was raided in 2022, revealing scheduled fights and over 80 roosters present. Five others were charged alongside Baker, with varied outcomes in their cases; only one has received sentencing so far.

Showing Animals Respect and Kindness did undercover work to expose the malicious animal cruelty. SHARK and Animal Wellness Action gave plaudits to law enforcement personnel with USDA’s Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for bringing the case. The failure occurred in the sentencing.

“Robert Baker was running regular all-day cockfights with as many as 500 people in attendance,” said Steve Hindi, president of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). “We documented that there were children in attendance. If this kind of flagrant disregard for our national animal welfare laws didn’t trigger prison time, I don’t know what would.” SHARK did undercover work to expose the malicious animal cruelty. The related video may be viewed here.

“Baker was more than your average cockfighter,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “He was the ringleader of an organized crime operation involved in animal cruelty, tax evasion, illegal gambling, and allowing kids to attend these spectacles of violence. This sentencing is a limp slap on the wrist, and he should have had the book thrown against him.”

Animal Wellness Action and SHARK have conducted numerous investigations of cockfighting venues and cockfighting breeders and traffickers.

“In addition to playing host to an extraordinary number of fighting arenas, Kentucky is at the center of the American and global cockfighting industry, with major traffickers shipping birds all over the world,” Pacelle added.

A Philippines-based cockfighting broadcast company, known as BNTV came to the United States, with its hosts and production crew and visited 50 or so major cockfighting spreads. During this U.S game farm tour, they produced and broadcast dozens of incriminating videos. With seven videos, Kentucky was second only to Oklahoma in the number of gamefowl farms visited.

The presence of the fighting pits and the cockfighting breeders is particularly alarming in light of the Avian Influenza virus that has spread to Kentucky and 47 other states. The connection between cockfighting and avian diseases, including avian influenza, is detailed in a recent report from Animal Wellness Action.

“The bottom line is that Kentucky laws against cockfighting need to be strengthened,” said Pam Rogers, Kentucky state director for Animal Wellness Action. “The federal law is strong, but there is no excuse for this flaccid penalty.”

The FIGHT Act

Both groups have been leaders in promoting the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act. The bicameral legislation, which appears stalled in the lame duck 118^th Congress, would amend national law prohibiting organized dogfighting and cockfighting (7 U.S. Code § 2156) and give law enforcement constitutionally sound enforcement tools to root out these persistent, widespread, and dangerous criminal enterprises.

In addition to halting the shipment of mature roosters (chickens only) shipped through the U.S. mail, the Act would create a private right of action to shut down such ventures, easing the resource burden on federal agencies, and enhance forfeiture provisions to include real property for animal fighting crimes. It also would address international broadcasting and wagering on cockfighting.

“Animal fighting investigations have uncovered intricate criminal networks and connections to organized crime, trafficking narcotics, illegal firearms, and attempted bribery of elected officials,” according to the National Sheriffs’ Association, one of more than 750 law enforcement and other organizations that have endorsed The FIGHT Act. “Dogfighting and cockfighting events present a danger to responding officers due to the often-large numbers of attendees, many of whom are armed.”

There are numerous casualties at animal fights, including a referee murdered at an illegal cockfight in Miami, a person shot at a Dallas cockfight in March 2023, and two killed and three wounded at a Hawaii cockfight in April 2023. In Oregon, in August 2023, a cockfighting and drug syndicate was involved with human trafficking. In November of that year, there was a double murder at a Mississippi dogfighting event.

U.S. cockfighters are closely consorting with Mexican cartels that run cockfighting pits in that nation. In late January 2024, there were 14 wounded and six murdered, including a 16-year-old from eastern Washington at a cockfighting derby in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Months before, also in Mexico, 20 people were massacred at a cockfighting derby, including a Chicago woman. Cockfighting is bound up with drug trafficking and other cross-border crimes. In November 2024, a Mexican cartel kingpin, a known cockfighter and also a driver of the fentanyl trade, was arrested in Riverside County, Calif.

In April 2024, the U.S. Coast Guard crew said it intercepted an unlawful migrant voyage in Mona Passage which led to the discovery of the three reportedly gang affiliated citizens wanted in connection with a fatal July 2020 shooting in Puerto Rico. The vessel was carrying “eight people along with multiple cockfighting roosters,” according to the Coast Guard.