Poultry growers have variety of motives

Sep. 5—While local residents discuss the difficulties of owning large poultry operations, an animal welfare group discussed several problems with cockfighting in Oklahoma.

Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action, said the nonprofit group, based out of Washington, D.C., is very involved with issues involving dogfighting and cockfighting.

"We work with our Oklahoma partners in blocking the efforts in the state legislator to weaken the state's voter-approved law to outlaw cockfighting and make it a felony, as well as associated activities like possessing animals for fighting," Pacelle said.

If passed, Senate Bill 1006 and House Bill 2530 would allow for counties to reduce cockfighting to a misdemeanor charge.

"I think [the cockfighting community] knew they couldn't do a straight repeal of the anti-cockfighting law, so they really chose to try to gut it in practical terms and make it an unusable statute," Pacelle said.

Pacelle said the cockfighting community has been trying to weaken laws like the 2002 Oklahoma Ban on Cockfighting Act, which makes it illegal to be a cockfight spectator, to encourage or hold said fights, or to keep these poultry for fighting purposes, since it was enacted.

Cockfighting takes place at events called "derbies," Pacelle said, which is where a certain number of birds are entered for fees that might be upwards of $1,000. Pacelle said as the event takes place several fights might be going on at once, and the person with the winning bird wins the pot of money. Pacelle said cockfights often have fighting implements attached to the birds legs by shaving down the spur on the back of the roosters leg and then strapping a knife with a varying blade lengths depending on the type of fight.

"But the real value is if you win at a derby and you're identified as a good cockfighting breeder," Pacelle said. "Then you can sell your birds to other cockfighters."

Pacelle claimed that some cockfighters will even export their livestock overseas to places, such as Guam, which an Oklahoma native/territorial veterinarian and leader of the Animal Wellness Action, Dr. Thomas Pool, brought to light in the past.

Pacelle claimed the only reason people with over 1,000 gamefowl is for cockfighting purposes, as that is where people can make their money.

"Nobody sells birds who is not involved in fighting, because nobody's interested in buying cockfighting birds from someone who is not involved in cockfighting," Pacelle said.

According to a past Tahlequah Daily Press article featuring Anthony DeVore, president of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, the commission does not advocate for people to participate in cockfighting. Instead, he said, they are trying to "fight to be able to own [gamefowl] without retribution."

Winterhawk Grimmett, Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission's chief of tribal affairs, said in the same TDP article they are also just trying to preserve gamefowl bloodlines that date back hundreds of years.

According to ODCR, a former district director of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, a case was filed against Chance Campo by the state of Oklahoma for servicing/facilitating cockfight in Carter County in June 2023.

"I just want to underscore to you that there's really no commercial reason for someone to have 1,000 or 2,000 gamecocks at a place in Haskell County or Leflore County or Bryan County or Topeka County. There's not commercial value in that for anybody," Pacelle said. "I mean, you might have someone who might go to a show and enter a bird, and you just have a few birds, but you don't get much money for that. You don't really get any money. You just get a ribbon that says you got a prize at the fair."

Carl Wallace, Tahlequah High School ag teacher, said that when it comes to having a large or small operation of any breed of chickens, the steps taken for them to thrive are dependent on the goal of owning the animal. An example of this is how poultry being produced for meat will have a different diet than that of just laying hens.

"Essentially there's not a ton of difference," Wallace said. "Some people will elect to raise them free range, where they'll basically eat bugs and grass, such as that to produce eggs. Then others will keep them pinned up and feed them grain."

Merissa Bogle, a Cherokee County resident, owns and manages about 100 different free-range hens. Bogle said the flock is made up of mainly laying hens, and she sells the eggs through her egg license. Bogle started her operation in 2015 with only three chickens, and after receiving a hatchery catalog, she started acquiring various breeds.

Bogle said that while having a large flock is fun, since each bird has its own personality and quirks, the chickens also help when it comes to small pests.

"I can say we don't have a lot of bugs in our yard and that benefits us," Bogle said. "In our pastures, we have cattle and we will have the chickens out with them, eating grasshoppers and crickets, so they're really good for pest management. But overall, it's just fun."

For meat chickens and laying hens, Wallace said, feed rations are often different, as the latter will need about a 16% protein feed, while those produced for consumption will need considerably more protein, like a Cornish Cross requiring 28% protein.

"You have to be careful and keep it in the middle of the road, as birds grow you can grow them too fast, and then their legs break down," Wallace said.

Wallace said the main issues people have to deal with when it comes to poultry is keeping predators — raccoons, skunks, dogs, etc. — away from the birds, as they can wipe out a decent size flock in one evening .

"I've had kids who had 20 birds, and raccoons get in them one night and they will have none the next morning," Wallace said.

The larger the flock, the larger the feed bill, and the bigger the poultry operation, the more water is needed. To keep diseases down, Wallace said, growers should not introduce chickens from different flocks all the time.

Bogle said since her birds are free range, there is not a large difference when it comes to raising a large operation.

"And because I have a couple of roosters, it's almost like I have multiple flocks, as one rooster will have his group of ladies and they will be in one section of the yard, or they'll be in one section of the field and they'll I'll have another group that is with the other rooster," Bogle said. "So other than just the amount of food I feed, there's really not that big of a difference in having 20 or 100."

The chickens' quality of life is the main reason Bogle keeps her chickens free range, especially since she has two guardian dogs — a Great Pyrenees and an Anatolian shepherd — that protect her birds from being harmed.