AR-News: Oklahoma Cockfighters Beaten, Again

[Political Animal]

Here are two articles about a vote in the Oklahoma
Senate yesterday.
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Lawmakers reject cockfighting bill
2004-04-23



 

Without debate Thursday, senators rejected a proposal
for county-option cockfighting in Oklahoma. 

The bill, House Bill 1784 by Sen. Frank Shurden, D-
Henryetta, received 22 votes; 25 were needed for
passage. 

Shurden, an opponent of the cockfighting ban that
Oklahoma voters passed in 2002, still has another bill
in a House-Senate conference committee that would
reduce the penalties for cockfighting from felonies to
misdemeanors. 

He introduced that bill last year. It has been in a
conference committee since. 

Shurden said he won't try the county-option proposal
again, but wants to pass the one that would reduce
penalties for cockfighting. 

Cockfighting ban survives Shurden bid 
By PAUL ENGLISH World Capitol Bureau 
4/23/2004 

View in Print (PDF) Format 

The senator falls a few votes shy in his latest
attempt. 
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Sen. Frank Shurden fell three votes
short of winning Senate approval Thursday for his
proposal to let individual counties lift a state
cockfighting ban. 

For Shurden, the loss was just another bump in the
road on his drive to roll back the 2002 election that
made cockfighting a felony in Oklahoma. The state
Supreme Court recently upheld the ban. 

His latest effort, House Bill 1784, received 22 votes
but needed 25 for passage in the 48-member Senate. 

The bill called for a statewide vote on the county
option. 

"If approved statewide, it would put a 180-day freeze
on the ban on cockfighting in 57 counties that did not
vote for the ban," Shurden said. 

During the 180 days, he said, residents could petition
their county commissioners to call for a vote to lift
the ban in their county. 

If the vote failed, then the county would go back
under the ban, he said. 

Shurden, D-Henryetta, said one senator who was going
to vote for the bill was gone. 

"If I got up to 24 (votes), I think I could have got
25. I didn't quite make it." 

The veteran lawmaker said a few senators who had
helped him try to pass legislation to reduce the
penalties on cockfighting didn't vote Thursday for his
option proposal. 

"These issues are damned close; everybody has got to
be there and in the chamber," he said. 

Shurden said he will do "whatever it takes to get it
done. I'm not going to quit until the last thing is
out there to try." 

Another of his cockfighting proposals, Senate Bill
835, is in a conference committee but could come up
for a vote next week, he said. 

That bill would reduce cockfighting from a felony to a
misdemeanor. 

"I'm going to try to do it statutorily because the
people need help right now," he said. 

Shurden said one family was arrested in Oklahoma City
for having gamecocks in late January. 

"There are a lot of families like that around the
state that are going to be arrested for owning
chickens if we don't do something pretty quick," he
said. 

"I know there's a lot at stake. There's a lot of good
people out there that their whole lives are beginning
to be thrown into chaos." 

Shurden said he doesn't fight roosters and doesn't go
to cockfights but knows a lot of people who do who
"are good, decent folks." 

"It's a shame to make criminals out of them just
because they had chickens," he said. 

"I've got compassion for the people. I don't really
care about the chickens; it's not about chickens to
me." 


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