Indictment: Kentucky, Georgia residents operated large cockfighting pit in E. Ky.

An Eastern Kentucky man operated a cockfighting arena in Letcher County with help from two Georgia residents that drew hundreds of spectators, a federal grand jury has charged.

The grand jury indicted six people Thursday in connection with the pit at Isom, which was known as American Testing Facility or the Whitesburg Chicken Pit, according to the indictment.

Those indicted were Robert Dwayne Baker, Brandon Honeycutt, Chris Prater, Virgil G. Saylor, Tina M. Miller and Henry Locke.

The indictment said Baker, Honeycutt and Prater lived in Eastern Kentucky during the period covered in the indictment in 2021 and 2022, but it did not say which towns.

Saylor and Miller lived in Georgia and Locke lived in Tennessee, according to the indictment.

Baker operated the Letcher County cockfighting pit with help from Saylor and Miller, who received a percentage of the proceeds, the indictment charges.

The venue allegedly had weekly cockfights and featured stadium-style seating; a main fighting pit and several side pits; a concession stand; and an area for selling cockfighting accessories. Those accessories included gaffs, which are sharp pieces of metal to be attached to a rooster’s leg to slash the other rooster.

The fights included illegal gambling, with spectators betting on the outcomes, the indictment charges.

The indictment alleged that Locke sold gaffs at the fights and Honeycutt helped referee fights.

The indictment cites three cockfights which Baker, Saylor and Miller allegedly organized and managed in February 2022. One was attended by about 400 people and the other two had about 200 spectators each.

It is illegal under federal law to exhibit or sponsor an animal in a fighting venture; to possess, train, sell or buy an animal for the purpose of fighting; to use the mail, Facebook or any communication that crosses state lines to promote an animal fight; to buy or sell gaffs; and to attend a cockfight, according to the indictment.

Baker, Saylor, Miller and Honeycutt are charged with conspiring to operate cockfights, and Saylor also is charged with using Facebook to advertise the schedule for fights.

Honeycutt faces a separate charge of attempting to exhibit a rooster in a fight and possessing a rooster for the purpose of putting it in a fight. Prater is charged with the same thing and also faces a charge of causing a child under age 16 to attend a cockfight.

All the charges are punishable by up to five years in prison for a conviction except for taking a child to a cockfight, which carries a maximum three-year sentence.

Animal-welfare groups have identified Kentucky as a center for cockfighting and for businesses that breed and sell fighting roosters around the country and internationally.

Roosters often die from injuries in cockfights. In sentencing the operator of a Laurel County pit last year, a federal judge called cockfighting an “especially cruel activity.”

That case was part of a larger crackdown on cockfighting in Kentucky in which a total of 19 people were charged in four separate federal indictments.