RUFFLED FEATHERS

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Sparks Fury by ‘Cheering’ Pro-Cockfighting Group

Animal rights campaigners want an apology.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is facing an angry backlash this week after he appeared to give his backing to an organization trying to legalize cockfighting, reports say. Stitt, a Republican, gave a video greeting to the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission—an organization which has donated to state lawmakers including Stitt in an effort to decrease penalties for taking part in cockfighting, according to The Oklahoman. In the greeting, Stitt said he wanted to take a moment “to cheer you on from the sidelines.” “I have never seen a governor of a state associate himself or herself with the cockfighting community and ‘cheer them on,’” Wayne Pacelle of Animal Wellness Action told KJRH-TV. Pacelle also received a statement from Frank Keating, a Republican who served as Oklahoma’s governor when it outlawed cockfighting in 2002. “It is an embarrassment to me that any elected official seeks to turn back the clock on this morally settled issue,” Keating’s statement read.