WASHINGTON (WNCN) — Two North Carolina men were sentenced to prison on Thursday for engaging in dog fighting and related criminal conduct, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to court documents, Laddie Dwayne McMillian, 47, conspired to breed, train and fight dogs for almost 15 years. The USDOJ said he openly bragged about owning and operating “mass destruction kennels,” a fighting dog breeding operation.

On Jan. 27, 2020, McMillian shared a video of his yard, showing 13 dogs. Court documents said he showed videos of his dogs engaging in fights. In one video that lasts almost five minutes, two dogs are seen fighting in a typical fighting pit. By the end of the video, the dogs’ faces and ears are bleeding and raw.

In early 2020, the USDOJ said Derrick Twitty, 48, joined the fighting and breeding operations. The men trained and bred dogs for dog fights, scheduled “roll” fights and tended to their dog’s injuries.

In a news release, the USDOJ described a “roll” as a fight between two dogs for a short period of time that tests the dogs’ fighting abilities and described it as an “animal fighting venture.”

Prosecutors said the dog “Slick Rick” was their prize fighter. The dog was born in January 2018 and McMillian trained and subjected “Slick Rick” to fights repeatedly. He died in January 2022, a few weeks after McMillian sponsored him in a dog fight.

“The defendants in this case treated dogs like a commodity, bred and trained to fight, often to death, for the amusement of spectators taking part in this cruel activity,” said U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina. “Dogfighting is an illegal blood sport that subjects animals to incredible pain and suffering. It is also a federal crime and one that has the full attention of my office and our law enforcement counterparts.”

McMillian was sentenced to one year and four months in prison. Twitty was sentenced to six months in prison. Both men will serve two years of supervised release after they complete their sentences. they are also banned from having any dogs during their supervision, even from a third party.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.