OKLAHOMA CITY — Legislation to lower the penalty for chicken fighting passed the state House of Representatives this year by the narrowest of margins but afterward stalled in the Senate.
The cockfighting measure, House Bill 2530 by state Rep. Justin Humphrey (R-Lane), failed in its initial House floor vote but squeezed by, 51-42, on reconsideration March 21. The bill was transmitted the next day to the state Senate, where it was assigned to the Rules Committee and languished. Although the bill is dormant, it still could be revived next year in the Legislature’s second regular session.
State Question 687, which Oklahoma voters approved in November 2002, provides that a violation of the cockfighting statutes is a felony that can be punished with a prison term of one to ten years and/or a fine of $2,000 to $25,000.
Humphrey contends that a felony charge for cockfighting is excessive. “You can get 10 years if you beat up an elderly person. If you assault a police officer you can get five years maximum. But if you have a fighting chicken you can get 10 years.”
HB 2530 would allow the voters of a county to decide whether to reduce cockfighting from a felony crime to a misdemeanor offense.
The bill has been opposed by several animal rights groups and by former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.
“At no time in the history of Oklahoma has the Legislature given counties an option to reduce felonies to misdemeanors, and there is no reason to do this for the blood sport of cockfighting,” Edmondson said earlier this year.