However, with the recent passage of an ordinance restricting livestock and fowl in town, Carter and others with similar interests must find alternate locations for animals or get rid of them. ..........
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Source http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1114673&TP=getarticle
Each bird has a leg tethered to his hut, the fowl version of a ball and chain. Any lesser restriction would cause a bloody mess and the certain destruction of a flock.
That's how instinctive fighting is to the species, cockfighters say.
Harmony Downs is a huge game fowl operation in southern Logan County. Industry officials say it is one of the world's largest such farms, with a flock of several thousand on more than 50 acres.
Hundreds were seen tethered to poles and others were being transported through an 80-by-200-foot metal barn on the property one day last week.
An injunction in Logan County challenging the new ban on cockfighting was dismissed in late October after the plaintiff and his attorney failed to show up for a court hearing.
Sheriff Randy Richardson said he knew game birds have been raised there, but he was unaware of the injunction dismissal. "Now that I know that, I'll probably talk to the district attorney about it," he said.
District Attorney Rob Hudson failed to return calls seeking comment on whether he will enforce the law or wait for its constitutionality to be settled in court.
Harmony Downs is owned by a trust. The beneficiary of the trust is Ed Pyle, who owned a construction company before putting all his assets into trust. The trustee is Oklahoma City attorney Henry Trattner.
Pyle declined to comment
His 300 roosters’ wake-up calls are repeated one after another, often long past sunrise.
• A
flock of thousands
In a week or so, Cogburn will resume a ritual of
his own: The owner of Hochatown Game Farm will take a few of his best fighters
for a two-hour drive to the Texoma Game Club or one of the state’s two-dozen
other cockfight pits. There, Cogburn’s finest, with knives strapped to their
legs, will battle other gamecocks to the death as dozens of spectators cheer or
grumble, depending on the outcome.
About a year ago, Oklahoma voters outlawed cockfighting. But aside from the foot-thick file of legal briefs in the state Supreme Court, little evidence of that election exists.
Game birds are still being bred and fought in large numbers, despite the state law plus a new federal law that prohibits them from being transported across state lines.
Cynthia Armstrong, head of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, frequently is asked why cockfights are still taking place.
“People are annoyed if not outraged that their vote meant so little,” she said.
Sherry Todd, the assistant attorney general fighting to uphold the state law, thinks another year will pass before the issue is decided.
The legal battle began Nov. 8, 2002. Three days earlier, Oklahomans voted 565,967 to 441,220 to make cockfighting a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
Proponents see the margin as a mandate. Opponents, noting that more than half the votes to ban cockfighting came from Oklahoma, Tulsa and Cleveland counties, view it as the big city encroaching on their way of life.
Differing motivations
T.J. Hogan, a rural mail carrier near
Guthrie, has about 50 game birds now, roughly the same number he owned before
last year’s election.
He said he loves his birds, even the ones he sends off to die in battle.
Hogan compares it to when he raised and showed livestock for 4H and FFA.
“You feed and water them and take care of them and love them as best you can, but at the end of the day you realize they’re going to the slaughterhouse. Then you go get another one and love it, too.”
For Cogburn, 75, cockfighting is more about economics. He and his wife both receive Social Security checks.
“My wife’s medicine is $500 a month. If we weren’t doing this, we’d be on Medicaid and food stamps and wouldn’t be able to own vehicles. We’d be part of the problem. But now, we’re taxpayers. We’re part of the solution,” he said.
What happens now?
The law has been challenged in 36 counties, and
injunctions in many of those counties prevent enforcement until a final
resolution is made.
Larry Oliver, a Tulsa attorney representing cockfighting interests, has filed a slew of motions in the state Supreme Court. That has resulted in counter motions and briefs and hearings on whether the Supreme Court justices are prejudiced against cockfighters.
Nearly a year after it received the case, the Supreme Court still hasn’t ruled on whether it is even the proper court to hear the case.
Oliver contends it should be sent back to district courts where the injunctions are in place.
Todd and Armstrong contend the Supreme Court is the proper venue because of the statewide interest. Besides, they say, the case would end up there on appeal, so the court can save the state time and money by resolving it there from the start.
Meanwhile, cockfighting resumes this month after a five-month hiatus for molting season. Fights will be staged from Guymon to Quapaw to Thackerville, but mainly in eastern Oklahoma at places with names like the Poultry Palace, the Rockyhill Roadhouse and the Mid-America Game Club. The settings range from small pits where the audience must stand to the Texoma Game Club near Kingston, which seats 700.
If the law ultimately is deemed valid, how difficult will it be for judges and prosecutors and sheriffs - all of whom are elected - to enforce it in counties that overwhelmingly support the right to own and fight the birds?
“There will be political pressure (to ignore the law),” Armstrong said. “But I think a couple enforcements around the state will go a long way.”
The political pressure to do nothing will be immense in some counties, said James Tally, president of the Oklahoma Game Breeders Association.
“A sheriff has to be elected every 4 years. If those people in McCurtain County who voted against the ban don’t vote for him, I don’t see how he could be elected,” Tally said.
Todd, the assistant attorney general, said some rural district attorneys have told her that if the law is upheld, they will enforce it, “no matter what the consequences.”
The going could be rough, if last year’s injunction hearing in Idabel is any indication.
Todd and Armstrong are convinced the law will stand, even if the process takes another year or more.
Hogan, the breeder and cockfighter near Guthrie, isn’t so sure.
“Most of us believe we will be saved. We have it in our minds that we will be saved or redeemed out of this deal,” he said.
Source http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1114295&TP=getarticle
2003-11-09
Cockfighting and the law State Question 687, approved by voters last year, outlaws more than just the act of cockfighting.
What is cockfighting? A fight between birds, whether or not fitted with spurs, knives or gaffs, even if no bets are placed on the outcome.
What's illegal? Attending a cockfight, possessing or training birds for fighting and instigating or encouraging a cockfight. Also, facilitating a cockfight, which includes promoting, refereeing, advertising or serving as a stakes holder for money wagered.
Punishment: Each conviction except being a spectator is a felony with
possible imprisonment of one to 10 years and/or a fine of $2,500 to $25,000. The
maximum penalty for watching a cockfight is a year in county jail and a $500
fine.
Source http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1113641&TP=getarticle
7,000 Number of state residents who belong to the Oklahoma Game Breeders
Association.
75 percent Percentage of the above number who live south of Interstate 40 and
east of Interstate 35.
250 Adult male birds owned by the average Oklahoma gamecock breeder.
2 Number of states (Louisiana and New Mexico) where cockfighting remains
legal.
19 Number of Oklahoma's 77 counties where the cockfighting ban passed.
1800s Century when most other states outlawed cockfighting.
0 Number of people arrested in the past year under Oklahoma's new felony
cockfighting law.
Source http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1113640&TP=getarticle