Animal Welfare Groups Applaud Grady County Law Enforcement for Cockfighting, Animal Cruelty Bust

Tulsa, OK — Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy applauded the Grady County Sheriff’s Office for busting a cockfighting operation and large case of multi-species animal cruelty near Ninnekah, Okla.

According to media sources, the Sheriff’s Office found numerous animals in poor condition on a four-acre property. Yer Vang and Chue Yang were arrested. They currently each face 81 felony counts, including cruelty to animals, owning birds for fighting, and child neglect. Cockfighting equipment was reportedly found on site.

“As we see in almost every case of a cockfighting bust the perpetrators are also charged with associated crimes,” said Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma state director of Animal Wellness Action and the Center. “In the Grady County case the accused were also charged with child neglect,” underscoring that cruelty to animals is bound up with other forms of cruelty.

The bust comes on the heels of a series of cockfighting-related busts in Oklahoma in recent years. Last year, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna filed charges against Ellie Grino and his wife, Jannine Yee, bringing one count of keeping a place, equipment, or facility to be used in permitting cockfighting and possession of birds with the intent to engage in a cockfight. That case is still pending in Oklahoma County Court.

“Cockfighting is barbaric and it is a felony under state and federal law, and we applaud law enforcement agents in Oklahoma and Grady counties for enforcing the laws they have been sworn to uphold,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the groups. “Cockfighters are being rudely awakened to the truth that these felons do not operate beyond the reach of the law.”

The arrests in Grady and Oklahoma counties come after a heavily funded effort by cockfighters to unwind the state law making cockfighting a felony. Their effort failed, with the Senate choosing not even to give a hearing to a bill, HB 2530, which would have allowed Oklahoma counties to opt out of the strong penalty provisions of the law approved by voters 21 years ago. A similar bill, SB 1006, also died weeks earlier in the Senate. A third bill, HB 1792, a broad rewrite of felonies on a wide range of subjects, including a reduction in fines for cockfighting, dogfighting, and other forms of malicious cruelty, also died.

Both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have introduced legislation to strengthen federal law against dogfighting and cockfighting. The Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, H.R. 2742 and S. 1529, gives more tools to federal and local law enforcement to interdict these violent crimes. Cockfighting also is connected to cartel operations and presents a direct threat to commercial poultry flocks because the often-diseased animals are moved widely in interstate and foreign commerce.

The FIGHT Act, amending Section 26 of the Animal Welfare Act, would enhance the enforcement opportunities by banning simulcasting and gambling of animal fighting ventures; halting the shipment of mature roosters (chickens only) shipped through the U.S. mail (it is already illegal to ship dogs through the mail); creating a citizen suit provision, after proper notice to federal authorities, to allow private right of action against illegal animal fighters; and enhancing forfeiture provisions to include real property for animal fighting crimes.