The raising of cockfighting birds is illegal in Oklahoma, yet cockfighting events are still being reported and farms populated with rooster pens pepper the land along roadways.

The recent reporting on a massive cockfighting derby over the first weekend in February by Animal Wellness Action, and discovered by Showing Animal Respect and Kindness organization, shared the magnitude of the event. More than 100 vehicles were parked haphazardly around a wooded clearing littered with rooster cages and trailers, states the report.

Steve Hindi is a veteran investigator with SHARK. He claimed the event was held in Adair County and gave the mapping coordinates of the location. 

"If the vehicles averaged two people each, that would be easily 200 people. These are organized criminals, and law enforcement must stop their illegal activities without fear or favor," Hindi said.

Hindi did not have photographs of the cockfighting in the form of proof, but the drone footage showed cages of roosters on the ground at the alleged event.

"[The building's] not storage for hay or machinery, it's just a cockfighting pit," Hindi said.

Hindi claims his group met with law enforcement officers, and that one told him, "That guy just raises roosters."

Hindi said their investigators do not take the word of individuals about what the police do or do not do, but must have evidence that has been collected by the investigators before reporting their findings.

"The U.S. Post Office is sending fighting live roosters around the country and around the world. They are complicit and we've reported them and they are fighting us," Hindi said. "They say, 'You want us to turn down the business,' and we tell them it's illegal. They say they aren't allowed to refuse shipments and it isn't illegal to ship chickens. It's not illegal unless the birds are used for fighting."

District Attorney Jack Thorp said he reached out to the Adair County Sheriff Jason Ritchie regarding the alleged cockfighting derby event.

"He has conducted a joint investigation with his undersheriff, Bob Gardner, and two Cherokee Nation marshals who went to the location and investigated, and my understanding from him is it was a benefit of some sort, not cockfighting," Thorp said.

Thorp said Ritchie had investigated the event a few days after it allegedly occurred.

Oklahoma law states that any person who keeps any pit or other place, or knowingly provides any equipment or facilities to be used in permitting any cockfight, upon conviction, shall be guilty of a felony. This was added by State Question No. 687, and adopted by general election on Nov. 5, 2002.

Wayne Pacelle is the founder of Animal Wellness Action, a 501(c)(4) organization focused on animals in public policy and politics. 

"I helped write the federal laws that have had any effect on cockfighting," Pacelle said. 

This law in 2002 amended the 1976 law that allowed shipment of animals to jurisdictions where the practice of cockfighting was legal – Mexico, the Philippines and Oklahoma, Pacelle said.

State Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-District 19, is trying to pass a law that reduces that felony to a misdemeanor. In March 2023, Humphrey made the argument for reducing the felony to a misdemeanor by comparing these sentences to violent crimes against humans. 

"You can beat up the elderly and get 10 years and have a chicken and receive 10 years. You can assault the police and get five years maximum. But if you have a chicken, fight a chicken, you get 10 years," Humphrey said in a video aired by KOCO ABC Channel 5.

An email from Don Perdue of Rural Lifestyle Alliance LLC to TDP, insists that what Pacelle says about shipping birds out of the country is illegal isn't true. The mission statement for RLA says, "The RLA seeks to protect small farmers and backyard flock hobbyists from federal legislation that can negatively impact both themselves and the animals in their care."

Chickens for eating and laying eggs are different than the breeds used for cockfighting, Pacelle said. Arguments have been raised by individuals that they are just raising the chickens, and whatever the person who buys the bird wants to do with it is out of the control of the breeder.

"No one is stopping the interstate transport of animals for food – but for cockfighting... this is a little charade for known cockfighters who are not raising food chickens," Pacelle said.

Pacelle related the experience of a friend who headed the veterinarian division of the Army and Guam's Department of Agriculture. Pool said the number of shipments of the birds into Guam numbered 12,000 over five years, and Oklahoma was by far the biggest shipper. The names of the shippers have to be documented due to diseases like avian influenza.

"Every place where cockfighting is a problem is due to law enforcement not doing its job," Hindi said. "Especially cockfight pits like in Adair County. It's not like the mobile drug dealer. The pits stay in the same place. Some of these places are so confident, they actually print schedules for an entire season."

State Rep. David Hardin, R-District 6, was sheriff of Adair County during his tenure in law enforcement. 

"I received some emails asking why isn't the Adair sheriff doing something about this. You have to look at the resources that the sheriff has. When I ran for sheriff, people asked me if I would enforce cockfighting. I said if we get a call on one, but with limited resources – I was given $600,000 a year to run that department," Hardin said.

On graveyard shifts, Hardin had one deputy, and on day shift, afternoons or evenings, he had two. He said he told those folks it depended on what was going on in the area in regard to criminal activity.

"If we get a call on a cockfight and there's no other call out there, then we go to the cockfight. If I get a call that there's a cockfight and another of a burglary where someone is being broken into, I'll go there. I did bust one cockfight at Chewey [Oklahoma]. We went out there and they had a big pit out there with probably 200 people," Hardin said.

What's next

Another report will follow on what law enforcement has to say about the prevalence of cockfighting, and elected officials on the proposed changes to the law against owning cockfighting birds and more of what has been uncovered by SHARK's and AWA investigations.

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