A far southwest suburban Custer Park couple was arrested Wednesday for keeping gamecocks used for illegal fighting activities on their property.

Sergio and Emma Martinez, of the 37000 block of South Zilm Road, were charged by the Will County state's attorney's office with 104 counts of violating the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act.

According to Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow, 105 roosters bred and trained to fight for the purpose of gambling were seized at the couple's home by the Will County animal control unit Wednesday morning.

The animal agency and the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad issued a search warrant for the Martinez property after being alerted to the gamecocks, Glasgow said.

Upon finding the birds on the property, along with paraphernalia used to train the roosters to fight, including spurs, Will County sheriff's deputies arrested the couple and booked them into the Will County Jail, Glasgow added.

If convicted of violating the state act, a Class A misdemeanor, the couple could be sentenced up to one year in jail and fined up to $1,000 on each of the 104 counts, Glasgow said.

The couple also is charged with illegally possessing game fighting paraphernalia, a Class B misdemeanor. That offense is punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a fine up to $1,000, Glasgow said.

Because the gamecocks have been bred and trained to fight, animal control will have to euthanize them, Glasgow said.

Training roosters to fight, a sport that dates back more than 3,000 years to ancient Egypt, is illegal in all states except Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. However, clandestine cockfighting pits have been found in barns and isolated places in virtually every state.

According to animal welfare officials, cockfighting is one of the worst types of cruelty to animals. The roosters are trained to fight to the death by pecking and stabbing each other with their beaks and, sometimes, with blades tied to their feet. Frequently, the birds also are pumped full of steroids, painkillers and other drugs to make them stronger and more vicious, animal welfare lobbyists contend. The driving force behind the sport is gambling, they note.

Game-fowl breeders, on the other hand, argue that the sport is an honorable one. Moreover, they contend, a bird raised to fight is treated much better and lives longer than a domesticated chicken that ends up on a dinner table shortly after reaching maturity.

The sport garnered national attention in the mid-1990s when New York City police arrested 296 people attending a cockfighting "Super Bowl" in the Bronx.