Animal advocates say that it is past time to dismantle dozens of illegal fighting pits in Oklahoma and deliver prison time and serious fines to lawbreakers like Anthony DeVore
WASHINTON, D. C. — Animal Wellness Action expresses dismay that cockfighting ringleader Anthony DeVore received a pitifully small fine of $100 after being caught in a fighting pit and entering birds in an illegal fighting derby in McIntosh County, Okla. last summer. Last week, DeVore pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge for cockfighting, and the judge handed him a deferred sentence and a paltry $100 fine.
“Anthony DeVore was caught dead to rights on tape committing felony-level cockfighting crimes, yet he skittered away with a rap on the knuckles from a soft-on-crime judge,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, which is leading a national campaign to eradicate dogfighting and cockfighting. “What a missed opportunity for the prosecutor and for the judge to apply meaningful penalties to a man who showed contempt for the rule of law and engaged in criminal animal cruelty.”
In July 2025, an investigator with Animal Wellness Action obtained video of DeVore and his wife actively participating in a cockfighting derby—with participation cards pinned to their backs indicating they brought their birds to the venue to engage in a series of staged animal battles.
In his role as founder and president of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission (OGC) and the United States Gamefowl Commission—both cockfighting front groups seeking to decriminalize animal fighting—DeVore unsuccessfully lobbied lawmakers over the last three years to weaken the state’s voter-approved anti-cockfighting law and repeatedly denied engagement in illegal cockfighting activities, as did the OGC vice chair Blake Pearce. They raised more than $100,000—much from ill-gotten gains from illegal cockfighting activities—and showered state lawmakers with campaign contributions. In 2025, DeVore’s political action committee was ordered to disband and fined $10,000 by the Oklahoma Ethics Commission for campaign law violations.
Pearce was also arrested for illegal cockfighting activities after Animal Wellness Action investigators caught him on video as a spectator at the same fighting pit around the same time as the DeVore incident.
In early March, Animal Wellness Action learned that Jeff Coleman, former sheriff of McIntosh County, has been charged with felony animal cruelty by the Cherokee Nation Attorney General Chad Harsha after authorities obtained video evidence at the same pit showing Coleman, who was the alleged organizer of the fighting derby on Cherokee land.
The animal welfare group, working in partnership with Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, has discovered and exposed dozens of fighting pits across the state, with DeVore and Pearce at the center of an organized network of illegal animal fighting operations in the state. The men raised money from Oklahoma cockfighters and other cockfighters throughout the nation and were engaged in a scheme to try to weaken the laws to avoid arrest for their criminal activities.
DeVore and Pearce had falsely told lawmakers in Oklahoma and Arkansas they did not engage in illegal activities and instead described themselves as ‘chicken breeders’ and ‘farmers.’
“Anthony DeVore has been lobbying state lawmakers and endlessly making the argument that the state’s voter-approved anti-cockfighting law is too tough even as he was engaging in the illegal conduct he was trying to decriminalize,” said Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma state director of Animal Wellness Action. “Now this cockfighter and trickster is running for the state legislature. It goes without saying, he’s not fit to serve.”
“This tells us one thing: the state law against cockfighting and the enforcement efforts associated with that law are too weak, not too strong,” added Chambers. Mr. DeVore is running for state representative in southeastern Oklahoma’s 19th District to fill a seat vacated by Rep. J.J. Humphrey, who is also a cockfighting enthusiast running for Lt. Governor.
“This sentence for DeVore is inexplicable and unacceptable,” added Pacelle. “When someone is caught red-handed committing a felony and walks away with what amounts to a parking ticket, it sends a dangerous message that these laws don’t matter.” Organized cockfighting is closely entangled with illegal gambling, drug trafficking, violence, and the presence of children in dangerous environments.
“Cockfighters and dogfighters are not inattentive people ignorant of the law. They know that what they are doing is a felony-level crime,” underscored Chambers. “Prosecutors and judges should act accordingly.”
Animal fighting meets the tests of a racketeering crime. “These people are part of an extensive underground network of criminals and they are degrading a civil society,” added Pacelle. “We need better enforcement, but we also need more tools to dismantle their crime networks.”