FRESNO - Joseph D. Sanford, 74, of Ceres, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to violate the Animal Welfare Act by operating cockfighting and fighting-bird breeding business, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, Sanford was the owner and operator of Joe Sanford Gamefarm in Ceres, where he bred and sold gamecocks for cockfighting.
Sanford also fought his own roosters. Following an undercover purchase of a trio of fighting game birds, federal agents searched Joe Sanford Gamefarm, where Sanford resides and found a large cockfighting enterprise consisting of 2,956 game fowl. In pleading guilty, Sanford acknowledged that he had shipped game fowl within the United States and to Mexico, Peru, and the Philippines for cockfighting.