͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. If you’d like to unsubscribe, click here. [[link removed]]

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Dear friend,
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, one of the least familiar names among our 50 state governors, is about to become better known on the national stage.
Why?
He’s a booster of cockfighting as an economic development activity for rural Oklahoma.
And he’s not hiding it.
That part of his political platform should attract attention—the wrong kind of attention for him—all across the globe.
This weekend, at a rally in southeast Oklahoma with hundreds of illegal cockfighters present, Governor Stitt issued a video tribute [[link removed]] to the gang that had gathered to celebrate staged animal fighting.
“I wanted to take a moment to cheer you on from the sidelines,” he said with a broad and inviting grin. “You all know Oklahoma’s long and storied history with game fowl, from statehood to today…your work helps to make sure our game fowl traditions are instilled in our culture for decades to come.”
“In less than two years, 15,000 Oklahomans have joined your ranks,” he added. “We need to protect the nearly 5000 game fowl farmers across Oklahoma and lift up our rural and municipal economies. I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together in the next legislative session.”
What the cockfighters want to do is overturn the state’s voter-approved law that makes cockfighting a felony.
Governor Stitt Attacks Animal Welfare and the Rule of Law
Stitt’s pro-cockfighting rate is a once-in-a-generation statement from a major American politician.
In 30 years of battling dogfighting and cockfighting, I’ve never known a state government to speak out in favor of this activity.
We can only hope that he doesn’t wish to bring back other 18th- and 19th-century enthusiasms, such as bullbaiting and dueling and putting people in gallows in the public square.
The good news is, I don’t think he’ll succeed.
For one, Stitt does not have the people of Oklahoma on his side.
According to a recent poll [[link removed]] , 87% of Oklahomans want to keep the strong anti-cockfighting law in Oklahoma in place.
That’s why, with confidence, we called out Governor Stitt at a press conference in Oklahoma. And we are calling him out across the nation.
We are joined in our counter-maneuvers by respected two-term former Republican Governor Frank Keating, who said yesterday “it is an embarrassment to me that any elected official seeks to turn back the clock on this morally settled issue.” He said that “talk of decriminalizing cockfighting is toxic to the idea of economic development and forward progress for our great state.”
“Cockfighting is barbaric and bound up with other crimes,” said Drew Edmondson, the former four-term Oklahoma Attorney General and the co-chair of the National Law Enforcement Council for Animal Wellness Action.
Cockfighting and Their Phony Front Group
Governor Stitt was pledging to join the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission—a cockfighting front group with a phony name—to overturn state law. And they are also fighting the new national legislation we are working to pass in Congress.
But there’s no mystery about who’s behind this effort to decriminalize cockfighting. It’s cockfighters. In fact, a leader of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission was charged with felony cockfighting in southern Oklahoma in August. According to the local paper in Ardmore, Okla., “deputies broke up the illegal cockfighting event” in June, “confiscating [about 60] fighting roosters and equipment while impounding 20 vehicles and trailers.” There were 170 to 180 people present for the cockfight, which occurred in the Fox/Graham area.
You can be sure we’ll be fighting the Governor and his cockfighting allies in Oklahoma.
But it’s not enough for us to preserve the laws in place. Or to enforce those laws. We want to build on those laws and make them tougher and bite harder.
That’s why we are promoting the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act at the national level. This vital legislation would enhance the enforcement opportunities by banning on-line gambling on animal fights; halting the shipment of mature fighting roosters shipped through the U.S. mail; creating a private right of action to allow citizens to sue illegal dogfighters and cockfighters; and enhancing forfeiture provisions to include real property for animal fighting crimes.
Today, as we call out a governor, we need your support. I hope you’ll donate today to our Animal Fighting Is the Pits [[link removed]] campaign.
DONATE [[link removed]]
And I hope you won’t waste another minute to advocate for our policy agenda. I hope you’ll call and write your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative in support of the FIGHT Act right away. [[link removed]]
WRITE TO YOUR LEGISLATORS [[link removed]]
We don’t have a minute to lose. We are in a fight. And the lives of millions of animals are at stake.
Animal fighting is a disgrace, it is a crime, and it deserves no tolerance in a civil society. Now is the moment where we test whether my description of that activity aligns with the values of everyday Americans.
Battling with you for animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
Photo courtesy of Andrew Skowron/We Animals Media.
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