{"id":299665,"date":"2023-11-19T16:10:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T22:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=299665"},"modified":"2023-11-20T12:33:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T18:33:55","slug":"oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s ‘Support’ for Cockfighting Group Not OK, Say Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma\u2019s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt<\/a> is facing censure from animal rights groups — and raised eyebrows from political opponents — after posting a video shoutout to the state\u2019s illegal cockfighting<\/a> industry.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt gestures onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, U.S., August 5, 2022. REUTERS\/Brian Snyder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Incredibly, Stitt has made a short video in support of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission (OGC), a group that advocates for the reduction of penalties for cockfighting.<\/a><\/p>\n

The practice typically involves spectators placing bets on birds that then fight to the death, usually with miniature hooked razors known as \u201cgaffs\u201d or \u201cslashers\u201d attached to their talons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cockfighting was banned in Oklahoma at a 2002 referendum, as one OGC district director, Chance Campo, knows only too well.<\/p>\n

In August this year, he was charged by prosecutors with felony offenses related to illegal cockfighting\u00a0after he attended a bout in Carter County that was busted by authorities.<\/p>\n

Cheering from the Sidelines<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cI wanted to take a moment to cheer you on from the sidelines,” Stitt told OGC members in his video, after apologizing that he could not attend the group\u2019s AGM in person.<\/p>\n

You all know Oklahoma\u2019s long and storied history with gamefowl, from statehood to today,”<\/strong> he continued. “We need to protect the nearly 5,000 gamefowl 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.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The OGC has donated more than $70K to Oklahoma lawmakers, including $2K to Stitt himself, according to The Oklahoman.<\/em><\/p>\n

The organization boasts on its website that it managed to work with the legislature to get four bills introduced and passed by committee last year, although none ultimately became law.<\/p>\n

\u2018Backwards, Embarrassing\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, whose administration oversaw the 2002 ban, described cockfighting as \u201ccruel and backward\u201d in a statement this week, adding that Stitt\u2019s behavior was \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an embarrassment to me that any elected official seeks to turn back the clock on this morally settled issue,\u201d<\/strong> Keating said. \u201cTalk of decriminalizing cockfighting is toxic to the idea of economic development and forward progress for our great state.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson complained that Stitt was associating himself with lawlessness, which was \u201cnot a proper role for any statewide elected official.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stitt Denial<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While state residents voted to ban the blood sport by a slim 52% majority at the 2002 referendum, the ban was delayed by legal challenges. It eventually came into effect in 2004 after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 7-0 that it was constitutional. The OGC has maintained a consistent lobbying presence ever since, The Oklahoman<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Governor\u2019s Office, Abegail Cave, denied that Stitt supports animal cruelty. Instead, he backs \u201cOklahoma agriculture,\u201d she said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stitt had \u201cnot seen or endorsed any legislation on this topic [of cockfighting],” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma\u2019s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt is facing censure from animal rights groups — and raised eyebrows from political opponents — after posting a video shoutout to the state\u2019s illegal cockfighting industry. Incredibly, Stitt has made a short video in support of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission (OGC), a group that advocates for the reduction of penalties […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":299666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82968,61,84511],"tags":[81962,83443,88835],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s 'Support' for Cockfighting Not OK: Critics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sparks fury by \u201ccheering\u201d for Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, which supports cockfighting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s 'Support' for Cockfighting Not OK: Critics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sparks fury by \u201ccheering\u201d for Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, which supports cockfighting.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-19T22:10:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-20T18:33:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/\",\"name\":\"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s 'Support' for Cockfighting Not OK: Critics\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-19T22:10:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-20T18:33:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sparks fury by \u201ccheering\u201d for Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, which supports cockfighting.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt gestures onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, U.S., August 5, 2022. REUTERS\/Brian Snyder\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Politics\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/politics\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s ‘Support’ for Cockfighting Group Not OK, Say Critics\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s 'Support' for Cockfighting Not OK: Critics","description":"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sparks fury by \u201ccheering\u201d for Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, which supports cockfighting.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s 'Support' for Cockfighting Not OK: Critics","og_description":"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sparks fury by \u201ccheering\u201d for Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, which supports cockfighting.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-11-19T22:10:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-20T18:33:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/","name":"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s 'Support' for Cockfighting Not OK: Critics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-19T22:10:28+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-20T18:33:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sparks fury by \u201ccheering\u201d for Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, which supports cockfighting.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Stitt.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt gestures onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, U.S., August 5, 2022. REUTERS\/Brian Snyder"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/oklahoma-gov-stitts-support-for-cockfighting-group-not-ok-say-critics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Politics","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/politics\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Oklahoma Gov. Stitt\u2019s ‘Support’ for Cockfighting Group Not OK, Say Critics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299665"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299775,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299665\/revisions\/299775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}