Oklahoma Wants to Ease Penalties for Cockfighting
Harvest Public Media
NPR Illinois.org
March 18, 2024
"Raising Roosters Is Big Business. Now a Push To Ease Penalties For Cockfighting Is Ruffling Feathers"
Cockfighting, the practice of fighting roosters, has been around for centuries.
In the U.S. it's a federal crime and illegal in all 50 states.
But in Oklahoma, there's an effort to lower the penalties for cockfighting that breeders say simply protects their right to raise roosters, while animal rights groups are calling foul.
[snip]
Within the last couple of years, several bills have been introduced in the Oklahoma legislature to reduce the cockfighting penalty from a felony to a misdemeanor in the first two instances or to give individual counties the right to do so.
One bill made it through the state's House of Representatives....but has not been picked up by the state Senate.
Anthony Devore, president of the Oklahoma Game Foul Commission, says it's about protecting breeders' rights.
"We want to be able to own and raise and sell the game foul without interpretation of people trying to say that we're trying to fight them and just not have to look over our shoulders," he said. "Because, you know they're flying drones over and saying 'Hey, you've got an illegal activity,' and we're like 'we're just raising chickens.'"
More:
https://www.nprillinois.org/2024-03-18/cockfighting-penalties-oklahoma-breeders
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