A pair of vile cockfighters were hauled before the courts after they posted videos bragging about the barbaric blood sport on Facebook.

Bill Ripley, 46, and Moses Brinkley, 61, posted graphic videos of the poor birds pulling out mouthfuls of feathers and pecking each other in the eyes with their sharp beaks.

The men, from Bean, Kent, built a makeshift pit next to a caravan for the birds to fight, and RSPCA officers found 242 cockerels at their traveller site.

The animal charity launched an investigation after posts which suggested someone called 'Shamo Bill' - believed to be Ripley - was breeding, keeping, selling and fighting cockerels.

RSPCA inspector Carroll Lamport said: "We joined police officers as they executed warrants at three plots on a travellers’ site in Bean, Kent, where we were able to identify some of the ‘venues’ shown online in the fighting videos.