Good news from the Department of Justice on both the cockfighting & dog fighting fronts––but what took so long?
BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky; MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma––September 10, 2026 brought dramatic demonstrations both in the Appalachians and on the Great Plains of why Congress needs to pass––and enforce––the FIGHT Act to knock the money out of cockfighting and dogfighting.
The good news from Kentucky was that five notorious alleged cockfighters and gamefowl breeders are at last under federal indictment.
(Beth Clifton collage)
All five suspects well-known to SHARK & Animal Wellness Action
The bad news is that all five defendants were known to Showing Animals Respect & Kindness and Animal Wellness Action investigators for at least five years, while allegedly raking in big bucks from selling roosters to foreign cockfighting operations.
Had the FIGHT Act been in effect all along, the five defendants’ gamefowl breeding operations might have been shut down years sooner.
Of course the five alleged cockfighters also could have been busted many years sooner if Kentucky law enforcement had actually done their jobs all along, under the existing federal and state legislation.
LeShon Johnson gets five years
The good news from Oklahoma was that former pro football player LeShon Johnson, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was on September 10, 2026 sentenced to serve five years months in federal prison for dog fighting, followed by three years on supervised release, and is to pay a $30,000 fine after being convicted at trial on six dog fighting-related charges.
The bad news there is that LeShon Johnson had already pleaded guilty in 2004 to Oklahoma state dog fighting charges.
(See Former NFL player Leshon Johnson hit again for pit bull fighting.)
FIGHT Act needed but stalled
Further bad news is that the Fighting Inhumane Gambling & High-Risk Trafficking Act, or FIGHT Act for short, has little chance of passage in the present Congress.
The FIGHT Act “would ban online gambling on animal fights, allow courts to seize fighting pit bulls and other property used by convicted animal fighters in the commission of their crimes, stop the shipment of fighting roosters through the mail,” and allow animal advocates to “bring civil suits against cockfighters and dogfighters when governmental authorities are too slow to act,” according to Wayne Pacelle, president of both Animal Wellness and the Center for a Humane Economy, who has lobbied for it since April 2023.
Father & son cockfighters busted
Back to the good news, “On June 23 and 24, 2026, federal agents executed search warrants at multiple Kentucky gamefowl-breeding operations,” summarized an announcement from the federal Department of Justice, after grand jury indictments of the five alleged cockfighters were unsealed at the U.S. District Court for Western District of Kentucky in Bowling Green.
“The warrants cited alleged violations of 7 U.S.C. § 2156, the federal animal-fighting prohibition; 18 U.S.C. § 371, conspiracy; and 18 U.S.C. § 554, smuggling goods from the United States,” the Department of Justice media release said.
Detailed the first of the four indictments, “Beginning on a date unknown to the grand jury, but not later than May 2011, and continuing at least through June 23, 2026, Ramon Escamilla and others ran a rooster-breeding operation for the purpose of breeding, raising, training, and selling roosters to participate in cockfighting.
“At some point during this period, Ramon Escamilla’s son, Eric Escamilla, became an active participant in his [father’s] rooster breeding operation,” the indictment said.
“Knowingly conspired”
“Beginning on a date unknown, but no later than in or about June 2023, and continuing through at least June 23, 2026, Ramon Escamilla and Eric Escamilla knowingly and voluntarily conspired with each other and others to violate laws of the United States,” the Escamilla indictment added, “knowingly selling, buying, possessing, training, transporting, delivering, and receiving animals for purposes of having the animals participate in an animal fighting venture.”
Added the Escamilla indictment, “Throughout the conspiracy, Ramon Escamilla and Eric Escamilla obtained, created, stored, and used equipment, accessories, and tools of the trade of cockfighting on their game farm, including barrels, teepees, cages, and…specialized enclosures used to house fighting roosters, as well as knives and gaffs, which are common fighting implements used during cockfighting derbies.
Sold to “Mexico, the Philippines, & elsewhere”
“Throughout the conspiracy,” the Escamilla indictment charged, Ramon Escamilla and Eric Escamilla participated in animal fighting ventures, i.e. cockfighting derbies, by exhibiting fighting roosters they bred and/or trained for cockfighting.”
Further, the Escamilla indictment added, “Throughout the conspiracy Ramon Escamilla and Eric Escamilla offered fighting roosters for sale to customers engaged in animal fighting ventures and sold roosters to in-person customers on their game farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as well as by shipping them to customers in Mexico, the Philippines, and elsewhere,” already illegal actions that the FIGHT Act would make more difficult to carry out.
Christopher Copas
Opened the second of the four September 10, 2026 indictments, “Beginning on a date unknown to the grand jury, but not later than September 2021, and continuing through at least June 23, 2026, Christopher Copas carried out a rooster-breeding operation, also known as ‘Kentucky Acres Game Farm,’ for the purpose of breeding, raising, training, and selling roosters to participate in cockfighting.
“During the same period,” the indictment alleged, “Christopher Copas used Facebook and his cell phone to advertise roosters for sale, to arrange for their sale, and to arrange for shipping them both within the United States and to places outside of the United States.
“On or about June 23, 2026,” the Copas indictment charged, Christopher Copas “did knowingly possess animals, namely roosters and immature male chickens, for purposes of having the animals participate in an animal fighting venture.”
Further, Copas “knowingly possessed a firearm,” the indictment says, specifically a “.25 caliber pistol that had been shipped and transported in interstate commerce, from which the manufacturer’s serial number had been removed, altered and obliterated, as the defendant knew.”
Donny Ray Haley
Said the third indictment, “Beginning on a date unknown to the grand jury but not later than August 2023, and continuing at least through June 24, 2026, Don Ray Haley, also known as Donny Haley, carried out a rooster-breeding operation” in Elkton, Kentucky, also “for the purpose of breeding, raising, training, and selling roosters to participate in cockfighting.”
Haley too, “on or about June 24, 2026, “did knowingly possess animals, namely roosters and immature male chickens, for purposes of having the animals participate in an animal fighting venture,” the indictment explained.
Possum Hill Gamefowl
The fourth indictment detailed that “Beginning on a date unknown to the grand jury but not later than September 2021 and continuing at least through to June 23, 2026, James Holland and others ran a rooster-breeding operation, also known as Possum Hill Gamefowl, for the purpose of breeding, raising, training, and selling roosters to participate in cockfighting.”
Also “on or about June 23, 2026,” the fourth indictment said, “Holland “did knowingly possess animals, namely roosters and immature male chickens,” like the other defendants, “for purposes of having the animals participate in an animal fighting venture.”
“Shipping fighting animals to die”
“The five Kentuckians were indicted,” Animal Wellness Action publicist Lindsey von Busch responded in a media release, “five years after Animal Wellness Action detailed this criminal conduct in a long-running investigation.”
Elaborated Wayne Pacelle, “Several years ago, we identified Kentucky cockfighting complexes shipping fighting animals to die in pits around the nation and around the world. We documented organized cockfighting through extensive online investigations, undercover work inside cockfighting pits, and aerial surveillance using drones.
“We knew then what federal investigators have now confirmed — that Kentucky cockfighting has been involved in a conspiracy to violate our national law against animal fighting.”
“Gangs & cartels”
Added Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi, whose cockfighting investigations in Kentucky began in 2019, “Cockfighting gangs and cartels, and their interwoven ties to drugs, weapons, and human trafficking, are on par with terrorism, and must be fought nationwide.”
Credited von Busch, “Showing Animals Respect & Kindness and its network of informants have uncovered more than a dozen illicit fighting pits in Kentucky, many of them with stadium-style seating.”
Added Pam Rogers, Kentucky state director for Animal Wellness Action, “We’ve long maintained that Congress gave federal authorities the legal tools they need to combat organized cockfighting, This case demonstrates the power of those laws when they are vigorously enforced.”
Kentucky State Police
Rogers, Pacelle, and Hindi, wrote von Busch, “noted that the Kentucky State Police have significantly increased their enforcement efforts,” following many ANIMALS 24-7 exposés of incidents in which Showing Animals Respect & Kindness in particular tipped various Kentucky State Police posts to cockfights in progress that the agency failed to raid.
(See Kentucky state cops let 33 cars leave alleged cockfight before investigating, KY State Police Post 11 shows how not to bust a cockfight, charges SHARK, Illegal dumping brings cockfighting bust, but SHARK tips to cops don’t, Alleged cockfighter indicted for bribery in Kentucky, others named, Kentucky cops ignore alleged cockfight at scene of two notorious murders, and Cockfights: Laurel County, KY Sheriff John Root avows he won’t do his job.)
Noted von Busch, “Congress made violations of the federal animal fighting law felonies in 2007 and expanded the law in 2008 to prohibit knowingly possessing, training, selling, buying, transporting, delivering, or receiving animals for use in fighting ventures.”
LeShon Johnson is 2-time loser
LeShon Johnson was convicted of dog fighting for the second time on September 10, 2026, recounted the federal Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, after “Testimony at trial showed that Johnson — who pleaded guilty in 2004 to Oklahoma dog fighting offenses — had been running a major operation since at least 2007 that bred and sold fighting dogs for profit.
“Johnson, who previously ran ‘Krazyside Kennels’, referred to his new operation as ‘Mal Kant Kennels.’
“The jury heard evidence,” the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs continued, “that Johnson bred and trafficked hundreds of dogs for the purpose of dog fighting around the country. Authorities seized 190 dogs from his property, the largest number ever seized from a single individual in a federal dog fighting case.
“Champions & grand champions”
“At trial,” Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs added, “the jury heard evidence that Johnson advertised many of his dogs as ‘champions’ and ‘grand champions,’ meaning they had won three or five fights, respectively.
“Johnson also boasted of the fighting prowess of his dogs. Johnson would sell litters of puppies from favorable fighting bloodlines and ‘stud fees’ for the right to breed with one of his male dogs, with proceeds totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
While the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs called the 190 pit bulls impounded from Johnson “the largest number ever seized from a single individual in a federal dog fighting case,”
225 pit bulls were impounded from Leshon Johnson and multiple other defendants in related cases in the a series of raids between May 25 and July 9, 2004 that led to his previous conviction.
Dementia
Though Johnson pleaded guilty to state animal fighting charges then, he successfully contested additional charges.
Attorney Billy Coyle IV, representing Johnson, in a pre-sentencing memorandum argued that Johnson should not have received prison time, reported Michael Rothstein for ESPN, “because he is a ‘medically compromised human being’ suffering from severe dementia and Parkinson’s disease,” allegedly due to Johnson having suffered “multiple concussions and traumatic brain injuries” during his football career.
(Beth Clifton photo/collage)
“He has had a daily caretaker for the past two years, according to the court documents,” Rothstein added.
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From my understanding and reading of man’s history on this benighted planet, as a species, we are the most lethal and even take pleasure and pride in our vicious ways of dealing with all manner of hurting and harming both each other and just about every animal with whom we share the land, air and ocean.
Thankfully there are notable exceptons, and those of us who are moved to object to this way of being , will continue to protest this inhumanity as long as we can. We make laws to address much of this harm, but even there, we have to work to make sure these laws have relevance and will stand. Thank you for continuing to address these brutal and inhumane acts, as only if we know they exist, can we ever even think of eliminating them from this gruesome list of alarming and contemptible modes of reprehensible cruelties to animals.
Cockfighting and dogfighting must go the way of bear baiting, and hiding behind the veil of spurious’cultural tradition’ will not wash! ENOUGH!
It is abundantly clear that any enterprise involving money, legal or illegal, receives a free pass from the present leadership; with the recent news that employment standards have been “loosened” for those applicants to one of our nation’s most important law enforcement entities who may have committed acts of prostitution and/or bestiality, anything and everything seems to be acceptable.
With gratitude to you and to all others opposing these heinous crimes, whether or not they are categorized as such by the leadership.
It boggles the mind that these disgusting and violent enterprises, especially cockfighting, have been allowed to exist this long – but of course, they have help from the law enforcement and judicial divisions that SHOULD have shut them down years ago. That “Good Ole Boy” network Down South includes the sheriffs and judges.who were probably placing bets themselves, if not outright supplying or owning birds. To describe this as a cultural thing with pride just demonstrates the ugly mentality of these people. Dogfighting is equally repugnant, but has more roots in crime; it’s not cultural at all.
Hopefully, things are finally starting to change – thanks for all the great reporting on this and ALL the issues you tackle.