It’s brutal and often done as dozens of spectators watch. Cockfighting involves forcing roosters — known as gamecocks — to fight in a pit with metal objects attached to their legs, often until a bloody death.
While cockfighting isn’t new and dates back centuries, the purpose of current-day cockfighting is for money and entertainment rather than a simple game. The humans forcing the roosters to fight can earn as much as $100,000 or more after a day, says Jessica Rock, Georgia’s animal crimes prosecutor.
Because Georgia does not have a specific law against cockfighting, investigators say the Peach State is where those from other states come to participate. When individuals cross state lines with trailers full of roosters for the events, that puts the poultry population at risk of the potential spread of disease, Rock said.
Some state legislators want a law on the books specifically addressing it, including this session’s bill’s sponsor, Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula.
The effort has come up short during previous legislature sessions. This year, Senate Bill 102 passed the state Senate by a vote of 49-3. Tuesday, the bill is on the agenda for the House Judiciary committee.
“It’s not just your old-school, rural Georgia guys out there in the woods fighting roosters,” Robertson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s now part of the fabric of a lot of different types of crime groups and organizations.”
That’s because there often is gambling involved, he said.
When large cockfights are held, children are among those coming to watch, making cockfighting just one of the crimes being committed, investigators say. Robertson said it’s time for Georgia to join the rest of the country with a law addressing it.
“How far are we choosing to be left behind when it comes to public safety?” Robertson said. “If you go out to some of these cockfights, you’re not just going to find birds fighting. You’re going to find sex trafficking, you’re going to find drugs, you’re going to find gambling. Violence begets violence.”
Despite there not being a state law prohibiting cockfighting, it is often investigated throughout Georgia because it is cruel to the animals and involves other crimes.
It’s not just in rural areas of South Georgia, where agriculture and farming are major industries, that cockfighting happens. Earlier this month, a man in northwest Georgia was charged with 27 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and four counts of cruelty to animals after 26 dead roosters were found in his yard, said the Walker County sheriff.
Investigators also found leg tags, gaffs and spurs typically used in cockfighting, the sheriff’s office said. A dog with a broken leg and four others dogs without food, water or shelter also were found on the property, investigators said.
If Georgia had a cockfighting law, it could have been used in this case, says Rock. Suspects in current cases in Georgia can face animal cruelty and possibly federal charges.
It is a federal felony to buy, sell, deliver, possess, train or transport an animal for participation in animal fighting. It also is a federal felony to take a child under the age of 16 to an animal fight.
“We shouldn’t have to make these federal cases,” Rock said in a previous interview with the AJC. “We should be able to prosecute cockfighting cases in the state of Georgia with a law that specifically addresses this brutal and barbaric activity.”
Those who abuse animals often don’t stop there, Rock said. Crimes against animals are often perpetrated in conjunction with violence toward humans.
“This is a culture that relishes and celebrates violence,” Rock said. “When children are exposed to such violence at an early age, it desensitizes them to violence and lowers their empathy levels. It’s 2025 and it’s time that in the interest of public safety, and for the sake of children exposed to this barbaric behavior, that we make Georgia the last and final state to pass a law specifically outlawing cockfighting.”
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