Letter: Leave cockfighting law intact

Letter: Leave cockfighting law intact

In 2002, Oklahomans successfully fought long and hard to ban cockfighting from our state. This year, Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, has filed a bill to severely weaken our voter-approved cockfighting ban. He seeks to reduce the punishment for cockfighters from felony level to misdemeanor level. In addition, he wants to remove language from the existing law that would redefine the crime to only include birds that are fitted with artificial spurs, knives or gaffs and remove ‘training fights’ from the definition altogether. His proposed legislation reduces the fines to $500 for the first offense, $1000 for the second and $2000 for the third and subsequent convictions with no limit or additional penalty for continuing to commit this crime. He would like to remove any jail time whatsoever under these laws.  

https://www.examiner-enterprise.com/story/opinion/2022/02/22/letter-leave-cockfighting-law-intact/6851471001/