Cockfighting video found on suspect’s phone during bust

Fighting pit, gaffes, and guns also discovered by Norman police during January incident; suspects arrested.

May 6, 2024

(Editor's note: this story was updated on May 16, 2024, to reflect that the suspects were arrested.)‍

Norman police found video footage of cockfighting on a suspect’s phone, as well as a fighting pit, other related paraphernalia, and various guns during a January 2024 raid that resulted in seventy-seven roosters being seized and transported to safety.

The suspects, Norman residents Arturo Garcia-Gonzalez, 28, and Lauriza Ibarra Vera, 26, now face criminal charges in Cleveland County District Court, including three felony counts of cockfighting and one felony count of possessing a firearm after conviction of a felony. The suspects were scheduled to come in for police questioning after the January 23 incident at 12251 East Cedar Lane in Norman but never showed up. Arrest warrants were issued on April 15 and the suspects were later arrested, said Norman Police Public Information Officer Sarah Schettler. “Investigators had evidence that both were actively engaged in cockfighting on the property.”

According to police reports, the Norman Fire Department responded to a 911 call about a barn fire at the property. Norman Animal Welfare also responded to the scene to help locate a litter of puppies thought to be inside the burning building. After they could not locate the dogs, officers asked Garcia-Gonzalez for permission to look in the other buildings, which was granted. Upon searching an adjacent barn, animal welfare officers “observed a square pit recognized as a cockfighting pit. Next to the pit was equipment used to record cockfighting, scoped rifles, and gamecocks with their combs (the red fleshy tissue on a chicken’s skull) cut off. At this point, the search was stopped, and a search warrant was obtained,” a police affidavit stated.

During execution of the search warrant, a number of items and animals were seized, including the roosters, which were “found in deplorable conditions alongside evidence of brutal training and exploitation of the animals for fighting purposes,” two sets of gaffes (knives attached to roosters’ legs to make them more lethal), medication for treating roosters after fights, guns, scales for weighing roosters, one rooster dummy (commonly used for sparring), and Garcia-Gonzalez’s phone, which “contained video of Garcia-Gonzalez fighting the roosters in the pit located at the residence,” police said.

The roosters were transported to the Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig’s Roost, near Bennett, Colorado, where they received care and medical attention. 

5,000 cockfighters call Oklahoma home

The Norman cockfighting bust was very different from another cockfighting incident that took place in Adair County on February 3. There, inside a metal building in a remote area near Stilwell—despite animal welfare activists tipping off local law enforcement—100 – 200 people gathered for an all-day cockfighting derby that went on uninterrupted. “Cockfighters are travelling from all over the U.S. and Mexico to engage in illegal animal fighting and gambling in our state,” said Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma director of Animal Wellness Action, a Washington D.C. animal welfare advocacy nonprofit. “Some are even moving here because they see Oklahoma as hospitable for animal fighting.”

Cockfighting and dogfighting are often associated with other crimes, such as illegal gambling, drug trafficking, gang activity, illegal weapon sales, and violence. Since 2023, there have been cockfighting busts in Carter, Marshall, and Oklahoma counties. “If sheriffs and police want to halt crime in their communities, bust up a cockfighting pit or a breeding operation for fighting animals,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action.

A political action committee formed to lobby the Oklahoma Legislature to reduce criminal penalties for cockfighting holds periodic advocacy and fundraising rallies. At their November 2023 conference in McAlester, Governor Kevin Stitt taped a video greeting that was played for the group, saying he could not attend in person but wanted to “cheer” on their legislative activities. “Oklahomans like yourselves remain dedicated to the spirit of competition and comradery that runs deep in our communities,” said Stitt. “We need to protect the nearly 5,000 game foul farmers across Oklahoma and lift up our rural and municipal economies.”

Politically, that stance is not a winner. Oklahoma voters approved a ballot initiative to make cockfighting a felony in 2002, and an April 2023 Sooner Survey poll seemed to confirm that mandate, as fewer than 10 percent of those polled think that cockfighting should be legal. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said cockfighting should remain a felony.

Animal Wellness Action has established a reward program that offers up to $2,500 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of persons involved in a crime related to cockfighting and dogfighting. Tipsters can email OKcrueltytips@animalwellnessaction.org with relevant information.

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