Dear Editor,
Your story about the Department of Justice indicting Broken Arrow resident Leshon Johnson should be an eye-opener for animal fighting enthusiasts that animal abuse is a serious crime and that they risk their freedom by engaging in the barbarous cruelty.
Dogfighting and cockfighting are both federal and state felonies. We appreciate the job the FBI and the DOJ did in this years-long investigation that led to the largest dogfighting bust in U.S. history.
As a native of eastern Oklahoma, I continue to be deeply disturbed by the prevalence of dogfighting and cockfighting in our communities. Crimes of malice toward animals are predictors of violence toward humans, so we are making everybody safer in our communities by robustly enforcing these laws.
Sheriffs and prosecutors in every Oklahoma county need to take animal abuse seriously and not wait for federal agencies to take action. Without enforcement, our laws are just aspirations, and criminals ignore them and charge ahead with their cruelty and chaos.
Citizens can play a direct role in bringing dogfighters and cockfighters to justice by keeping an eye out for many dogs or roosters chained or tethered to barrels or teepees in yards or signs of fighting pits. Tips can be sent to OKcrueltytips@animalwellnessaction.org.
A few Oklahoma legislators keep introducing bills to weaken our anti-animal fighting laws but every bill has been defeated. It’s still disheartening at how many legislators vote each year to weaken these laws.
There is currently bipartisan federal legislation called the FIGHT Act would strengthen our federal anti-animal fighting laws and we need to get Congressman Kevin Hern to endorse it. The FIGHT Act has been endorsed by hundreds of sheriffs’ associations and other enforcement groups across the country.
Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma State Director
Animal Wellness Action
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