(Beth Clifton collage)
Whether Ellis County will actually bring charges remains unknown
FERRIS, Texas––Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] and Animal Wellness Action “have busted yet another illegal cockfighting ring in Ferris, Texas,” Animal Wellness Action posted to social media late on March 24, 2025.
Ferris begins at the southern city limit of Dallas, Texas.
Unfortunately, in absence of any affirmative statement from Ellis County, Texas sheriff Brad Norman, what exactly happened is verified only by SHARK drone video and witness statements from SHARK founder Steve Hindi and Animal Wellness Action investigator Kevin Chambers.
The Red Trailer at Ferris, Texas cockfight location.
“Our teams were on site”
“Our teams were on-site, documenting the illegal activities with drones and promptly alerted the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office,” said Animal Wellness Action.
“The quick response caused the perpetrators to scatter, leading to a significant disruption of the event.”
But that was not all that happened. The SHARK drone video captured approximately 85 cars, pickup trucks, and trailers converging on a wooded area off Wickliffe Road, immediately south of Ferris, Texas. Men were videotaped carrying roosters into the building believed to house the cockpit.
A food vending vehicle with signage identifying it as “The Red Trailer” was also videotaped on the premises. The “Red Trailer” food vending company is based in Holiday, Texas, about 160 miles to the northwest.
Fighting gamecocks outlined in white for visibility.
(From SHARK video.)
“Drag pit” videotaped
More damning, an outdoor area near the cockpit was used as a “drag pit,” where wounded gamefowl are taken to finish fights that have slowed to the point of losing entertainment value for the spectators and only the bettors are still interested in the outcome.
SHARK videotaped the “drag pit” action for a considerable time while attempting to summon the Ellis County sheriff’s department to the scene.
“The cockfight occurred on private property on March 22, 2025,” narrated Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“No one was apprehended initially”
“After sheriff’s deputies and animal control arrived on scene, cockfighters began fleeing, leaving behind vehicles, masses of dead birds, and also live birds,” Pacelle said.
“According to the sheriffs’ office, no one was apprehended initially, but investigators documented the crime scene late into the night and intend to bring charges. It is a felony in Texas to host a cockfight or to participate in a cockfighting derby,” Pacelle reminded.
“There is a bill in the state legislature to further strengthen the law,” Pacelle added.
Loyd family members Gary, Rita, & Brandon.
(Beth Clifton collage)
All in the family
Ellis County property records indicate that the site of the cockfight is owned by Matthew Garrit Loyd, 38, possibly with his wife Natalie K. Marchand Loyd, 40.
The nearest house belongs to Gary W. Loyd, 71, and his wife Rita T. Loyd, 68.
Listed as living or having lived at the same address, and as using a telephone number also used by Natalie K. Marchand Loyd, is Brandon Lamoyn Loyd, 39, booked by the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office in March 2022 for possession of less than one gram of a controlled substance, and on October 19, 2022 for alleged possession/promotion of “lewd visual material depicting a child.”
The disposition of the two cases is unknown.
(Beth Clifton collage)
How many birds & where did they go?
Likewise unknown is the number and fate of gamefowl impounded at the scene. That gamefowl were impounded became known when the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office asked Pacelle for help in finding placements for the birds.
“I just heard from the SPCA of Texas that it did not take any birds,” Pacelle told ANIMALS 24-7 late on March 24, 2025. “The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office is keeping the live birds on the property, presumably with the owner being forced to care for them, but not allowed to move them.”
ANIMALS 24-7 independently obtained a list of nearly 400 people who may have been invited to the March 22, 2025 cockfight, mostly residents of the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, thirteen of whom were high school students, and five of whom had social media addresses in Mexico.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Ellis County vs. Titus County
“On the prior Saturday, March 15, 2024,” Pacelle continued, “Animal Wellness Action and SHARK documented an even larger event at the property of cockfighting kingpin Tim Thompson,” in Titus County, northeast of Ferris, due east of Dallas.
(See Titus County, TX sheriffs didn’t raid Facebook friends’ alleged cockfight.)
“While the Ellis County Sheriffs’ Office obtained a warrant in short order and began gathering evidence at the crime scene,” Pacelle said, “the Titus County Sheriffs’ Office refused to do so.
“A senior law enforcement officer with the Titus County Sheriffs’ Office, who was not at the crime scene, appears to have unilaterally determined there was not probable cause of a crime in progress, despite solid evidence provided by our investigators.
Left: Lieutenant Craig Brown.
Right: Sheriff Chris Bragg.
(Facebook photo)
Facebook friends
“It turns out that the officer is a Facebook friend of the property owner,” Tim Thompson, “who maintains two massive gamecock farms and a fighting pit at the property.”
Both Titus County sheriff Chris Bragg and lieutenant sheriff Craig Brown are Facebook friends of Thompson, whose Facebook profile image is a gamecock.
Beth Clifton of ANIMALS 24-7 turned up a decade’s worth of Thompson postings pertaining to cockfighting within minutes of learning his name.
Tim Thompson. (Facebook photo)
“Chockablock with fighting rooster farms”
Meanwhile back in Ferris, Animal Wellness Action investigator Kevin Chambers observed that, “Ellis County is chockablock with fighting rooster farms that raise birds for use in these cruel cockfights,” and history bears him out.
The Waxahachie Daily Light, published from western Ellis County, reported a decade ago that on March 29, 2015 “The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office raided a suspected cockfighting ring and seized 284 roosters and hens. Approximately 30 people were detained at the scene.
“On the same day,” the Waxahachie Daily Light added, “the Lancaster Police Department and Dallas County District Attorney’s Office raided a suspected cockfighting ring,” also in Ellis County, “and seized 100 roosters and hens. Thirty-seven people were detained at the scene.”
Almost three years to the day later, in March 2018, the Waxahachie Daily Light reported that, “A tip from a concerned resident led Waxahachie Police to the seizure of 73 roosters and the discovery of a potential cockfighting.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Ran off into a wooded area”
“When our officer arrived, several people ran off into a wooded area nearby. There were about 15 vehicles parked on the property,” Waxahachie Police Lieutenant Todd Woodruff said. “Officers were able to locate a few of the persons and, in talking to them, determined that they had indeed gathered to watch a cockfight that was about to take place at the location.”
“Woodruff said detectives were able to secure a search warrant for the property and mobile home. Along with the roosters, officers seized several gaffs, which are small metal spurs that are attached to a rooster’s leg for the duration of the fight.”
Waxahachie Daily Light reporter Andrew Branca noted that the March 2018 raid “marked the second cockfighting-related violation in Ellis County over the last year. The previous Daily Light report stated Ennis Police arrested a Dallas resident. Officers found three crates of live chickens and a plastic bag containing gaffs during a search of his vehicle. The driver was believed to be associated with a cockfighting ring.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Simultaneous bust in California
Even as the latest cockfight raid in Ferris, Texas was underway, reported Victor Guzman of KION-TV in Monterey, California, and Ricardo Tovar of KSBW in Salinas the following morning, police in Greenfield, California, nine miles south of Salinas, interrupted a cockfight at Patriot Park, at the southwestern corner of the small city, adjacent to a vineyard.
About 40 people fled the scene on foot and in cars. Fourteen live roosters and one dead rooster were left behind.
“The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and SPCA are taking over the investigation,” Guzman said.
Funded by the Humane Farming Association, Steve Hindi and SHARK droned numerous gamecock breeding sites between Salinas and Greenfield in 2019-2020.
(See More cockfighters than stars in Doris Day/Clint Eastwood country? and Wildfires, COVID-19, & cockfighting besiege Monterey County.)
(Beth Clifton collage)
Cockfighting convictions in U.K.
In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, convicted cockfighters Hugh Steele, 53, and Douglas Price, aged 44, both of Poplar Meadow, Sleaford Road, Beckingham, were on March 11, 2025 banned for life from keeping chickens, gamecocks, and wild birds for life.
Both Steele and Price also received 12-month suspected jail sentences, and each was ordered to pay £1,000 court costs and do 150 hours of unpaid community service.
Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.
Price was previously convicted of illegally keeping gamefowl and cruelty to animals in September 2023. He was then sentenced to serve nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months on condition of good behavior, and was prohibited from keeping gamefowl.
Cockfighting has been illegal in England and Wales since 1835. The law was reinforced in 2006.
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