A Bedford County man will go to jail for selling roosters for cockfighting.

Bedford County Circuit Court Judge James Updike on Tuesday sentenced Avery Fitzgerald to a four-month term after he pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding, abetting or promoting animal fighting.

A Sheriff's Department official says an undercover officer purchased two roosters for fighting from the 63-year-old Fitzgerald in December.

A subsequent search of Fitzgerald's property near Big Island yielded 39 roosters, game spurs, betting slips and a fighting pit.

A grand jury indicted Fitzgerald on two felony charges, but Updike reduced one charge to a misdemeanor and dropped the other.

Fitzgerald was ordered to pay restitution for the county's expenses of seizing, caring for and euthanizing the roosters.