Cockfighting is apparently still legal in Oklahoma, and I'm aware of one site where the "operator" has something like 80 cock pens (for raising them) and apparently stages events approximately weekly. I don't know whether there's a "season" for it, or whether it's all year.

This site is at least 70 miles from the nearest town with a population of more than 5 or 6 thousand people, and in fact is about 6 miles from the nearest town of any kind, so I don't know who his "customers" are. None of the locals will admit to attending, and there's no visible "out of town traffic," but rumor is that people do travel from rather large distances. Rumor holds that quite a few people raise "fighting cocks" in areas where the fights are not legal, and bring them there to fight. Bets are apparently in large amounts but small in number. "Publicity" for the fights is apparently entirely "word of mouth" between fans.

Even in this area where it's "legal," the people who participate are a rather "closed" group, and it appears that you have to be "one of the crowd" to be informed of when and where fights will be staged. I'm surprised that anyone would be "invited" by a stranger.

In Wichita, Kansas, where it is very much illegal, there have been repeated evidences of staged dog fights, but police have been attempting to figure out when, where, and by whom it's being done for several years now with no success. It is suspected that it was originally an activity of a particular "ethnic group," but now appears to have spread to "other cultures." There's no real evidence for it, but some have the opinion that the current activity has a "street gang" connection.

In Wichita, police and animal control officers have found a number (not large, but significant) of dogs that appear to have been bred and trained for fighting, but without actually catching them at a fight it is very difficult to prove intent. In some seemingly obvious cases they've been unable even to impound the animals. In the few cases where they've been able to take the dogs, it was based on the rather cruel conditions under which they were being kept. These are NOT house pets, and are often inhumanely treated in "training."

I suspect that the "dog" situation in Wichita is not unique; but it doesn't make the news, except locally, unless there's a successful arrest.

A few years ago a pet shop owner commented to me that a customer who had just walked out seemed to "replace his fish a lot." He walked out with a half dozen Betta Splendens and her implication was that she believed there'd be a "betting party."

My personal feeling is that it's something of a moral problem that local highschools all keep a few "pet halfbacks" that they train and send out to "perform" in activities with high likelihood of injury - "for sport;" but the culture at large doesn't seem to find it a problem.

John