Before Oklahoma became one of the last places in the U.S. to outlaw cockfighting in 2002, it wasn't uncommon to see the bloodsport draw hundreds of spectators. Now, more than 20 years later, some worry Oklahoma is starting to waver. A proposal to weaken cockfighting penalties cleared the Oklahoma House.
Before Oklahoma became one of the last places in the U.S. to outlaw cockfighting in 2002, it wasn’t uncommon to see the bloodsport draw hundreds of spectators. Now, more than 20 years later, some worry Oklahoma is starting to waver.A rooster stands near its teepee shelter at Troy Farms, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, in Wilson, Okla. Before Oklahoma became one of the last places in the U.S.
For his part, Stitt said he records dozens of videos each week and didn’t give his participation much thought. “Of course, I’m not for gamecock fighting in the state of Oklahoma,” he told The Associated Press. But he also suggested he is open to reducing penalties if the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature sends him a bill.
Devore said he and others raise the birds to participate in poultry shows and sell them as breeding stock overseas. While cockfighting is illegal in many countries, it remains legal and popular in some Mexican states, the Philippines and some countries in southeast Asia. The effort is welcome news to Troy Thompson, a former high school teacher and coach who now works full-time raising thousands of birds every year on his 55-acre ranch dotted with white, tent-like structures near the town of Wilson in far southern Oklahoma, just 30 miles north of the Red River border with Texas.
Thompson said he grew during a time when rooster fighting was legal and dozens of farms dotted the rolling hills of southern Oklahoma. The name of his boyhood T-ball team was the Dillard Fighting Cocks. Still, Mashburn said it’s important to enforce anti-cockfighting laws because there is often a criminal element engaged in the activity that often involves illegal drugs and gambling.
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