Enid News & Eagle

EDITORIAL

May
30

2020
Fighting
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A004
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birds
State needs to divest itself
from shadowy, sinister
world of cockfighting
Good for Drew Edmondson for tak-
ing a stand against Oklahoma’s role as
a prime breeding ground for fighting
chickens.
The former Oklahoma attorney gen-
eral is asking U.S. Attorney Brian J.
J
Kuester to investigative allegations
of trafficking and illegal possession
of fighting fowl. That’s because the
Muskogee-based Kuester has juris-
diction for the Eastern District of
Oklahoma.
“The Eastern District is fraught with
individuals who have been involved in
the global trafficking and fighting of
birds,” Edmondson said in a released
statement. “It is a felony under state
and federal law to buy, sell, deliver or
own any bird with the intent that such
bird shall engage in a cockfight, and
that’s clearly what we’re seeing.”
We agree that this deserves a probe
from law enforcement officers and pros-
ecutors — especially after The Frontier
reported that our state is one of the
biggest exporters of game fowl used in
illegal cockfights in America, according
to a national animal rights group.
Enid native Louisa McCune, exec-
utive director of the Kirkpatrick
Foundation, which supports a number
of animal welfare causes, said she
hopes law enforcement investigates the
possible breeding, selling and shipping
of roosters used for this “unconsciona-
ble blood sport.”
It has been 20 years since the bar-
baric practice of fighting chickens
for fun and profit became a felony in
Oklahoma. Now it is high time to crack
down on the breeders raising these birds
and then shipping them to Guam.
This inhumane sport needs to be
stamped out of our state. Oklahoma
needs to divest itself totally from this
shadowy and sinister world.

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