BATON ROUGE - A local man received a 1-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in a federal animal cruelty case.

Aquintas Kantrell Singleton, 35, had pleaded guilty in July to an Animal Welfare Act count stemming from the possession of 17 dogs for use in a fighting operation.

His sentence concludes an investigation that dates to 2017, when agents learned of the dog fighting ring. They searched Singleton's home and found 17 "pitbull-type dogs" restrained with heavy chails and weighted collars or kept in primitive cages. Many showed scars or fresh wounds, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

“Blood sports, like dogfighting, are federal crimes,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “To set animals against each other for entertainment is cruel and unjust. Anyone who commits these acts should expect to be caught and to serve time in prison.”

Multiple federal and state agencies were involved in the investigation, which involved use of court-authorized wiretaps to identify additional suspects and understand the scope of the operation.