Northeast Texas a hot spot for cockfighting, but animal welfare advocates aim to shut it down

Published 11:02 pm Tuesday, July 29, 2025

When the Titus County Sheriff’s Office arrested Timothy C. Thompson for hosting a July 4 cockfight, animal welfare advocates celebrated. They had worked to get him arrested and dubbed him the region’s “cockfighting kingpin,” saying he had one of the largest operations in the region.

But he’s not the only one they say is involved. Northeast Texas is a hotspot for cockfighting, and the advocates who helped facilitate Thompson’s arrest aren’t stopping with him.

Timothy C. Thompson

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Animal Wellness Action organization, and Kevin Chambers, who investigates reports of cockfighting for the organization, said this part of the state is part of an expansive corridor where cockfighting thrives, stretching from northeastern Oklahoma south into the Piney Woods.

With the help of an undercover informant, Pacelle and Chambres captured video footage of Thompson’s July 4 cockfight that led to his arrest and the arrest of others involved. They hope to shine a light on other cockfighters who’ve been skirting the law in East Texas and win the fight against the illegal practice.

“They think they can get away with it. And they used to be able to get away with it until we started to put our attention on it,” Pacelle said. “We don’t just want to pass laws. We want to see that those laws are enforced, and we want to see this cruelty to animals stop.”

Why it thrives here

In Texas and Oklahoma, dozens of cockfighting pits – places where roosters fight to the death – are thriving, Pacelle said. That includes upper East Texas: The region from Dallas to Texarkana is “full of cockfighting,” Chambers said.

The United States has an estimated 20 million fighting birds, and cockfighters here are selling their birds to about 30 other countries, Pacelle said. He said he believes Texas has more fighting birds than any other state in the nation.

Though cockfighting has been outlawed in Texas since 1907, it thrived because of loopholes in the law. For decades, the practice was legal in Oklahoma and Louisiana, putting Northeast Texas at the center of a region where it was popular.

Though cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states and is a federal crime, a lack of enforcement of those laws means it’s still a problem, Pacelle said. Federal law enforcement authorities “are not robust” in enforcing anti-cockfighting laws, and enforcement at the local level varies.

That’s where Animal Wellness Action has stepped in by advocating for stronger anti-cockfighting laws and collaborating with law enforcement to arrest suspects.

Pacelle might be known best as the former leader of the Humane Society and a vocal critic of former NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who was arrested and convicted on charges related to dogfighting. After Vick was released from prison, he spoke to thousands of youth alongside Pacelle to urge them not to participate in animal cruelty.

Pacelle has participated in numerous efforts to ban animal fighting in the U.S.

Chambers is a former U.S. diplomat and an experienced global business leader. He has volunteered as an animal cruelty investigator for decades. He directs Animal Wellness Action’s activities in Oklahoma.

Caught in the act

In March, an undercover informant captured video footage of a cockfight in progress at Thompson’s property in Titus County. The footage paints a picture of a massive enterprise: Between 200 and 250 people were present, and the event took place in a large, metal barn, hidden in the woods, Chambers said. He estimates Thompson had about 500 game birds on his property.

The organization’s leaders turned the footage over to the sheriff’s office, and deputies went to the property, but Thompson didn’t let them enter. At the time, Pacelle said the sheriff’s office hadn’t obtained a search warrant, and he criticized the department for its response.

The situation was different in July, when an undercover informant for the animal welfare organization captured video from inside the fight at a property on CR 3925. Deputies responded and arrested Thompson, who was charged with one count of cockfighting and four counts of cruelty to a livestock animal. Animal Wellness Action partners with an organization known as SHARK, Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, on all of its investigations, and the investigation into Thompson began with a tip from SHARK.

What law enforcement says is a cockfighting farm on CR 3925 in Titus County is pictured Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

“This guy was well known in cockfighting circles, and he’d been doing this a long time, and it was a huge venue. It was like an arena. So this [arrest] was pretty big,” Chambers said.

Days later, Titus County officials said Thompson had been charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, a third-degree felony. Three other people were arrested on the same charge in connection with the cockfight.

That’s not surprising to Pacelle and others who are familiar with the inner-workings of those operations. Where there’s a cockfight, there’s bound to be other illegal activity, Pacelle and Chambers said.

Cockfighting is a favorite pastime of Mexican drug cartels, and they’re heavily involved in the practice, often establishing relationships with cockfighting leaders. Drug trafficking is commonly associated with cockfighting, as is illegal gambling, tax evasion and other criminal activity.

“Our goal is to eradicate all of this activity,” Pacelle said. “It’s a crime. It’s a felony. It’s tied in with other criminal behavior. There’s no redeeming value. Almost no rational person supports it.”

Why cockfighting is violent

Long before animal welfare organizations were in effect to lobby for animal welfare laws, laws against cockfighting were common, Pacelle said. People had a “moral intuition” that the activity was wrong and “corrosive to character development.”

That’s because the truth of cockfighting is visible for anyone to see.

Roosters, bred to fight, are put in a fighting ring with knives or ice picks strapped to their legs. They’ll battle to the death as a crowd of people watches. Birds are often given stimulants and anti-hemorrhaging drugs to increase their fighting power and stay in the game longer, even as they bleed out.

At many events, children are watching.

“I’ve never been to a cockfight in my entire life where children were not present,” Chambers said. “They always take the children, and the impact that makes on children – being raised to have no empathy – is not good for animals. It’s not good for humans.”

That sets a dangerous precedent: The FBI’s profiles of serial killers and school shooters often show the perpetrators engaged in animal cruelty as children, Pacelle said.

“We have to have empathy for one another in order to succeed as a society,” Pacelle said. “When you’re training children to lose their natural instinctive empathy, you’re creating a problem person.”

Not all cultures and nations view cockfighting the same way, however. It’s legal and a traditional practice in parts of Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. When people from such nations immigrate to the U.S., they might want to keep the practice going. But just because people do it elsewhere doesn’t make it moral, and it doesn’t make it legal in the U.S.

Pacelle also rejects the notion that cockfighters are just good ole’ country boys having some fun.

“We have a history here, and that history is reflected in democratic decision-making to forbid this cruelty,” Pacelle said. “You’re a cockfighter. You’re a criminal.”

How they get caught

Undercover informants are key to the success of busting cockfights. The video footage they capture and information they provide is vital for arrest and prosecution.

Undercover informants could be cockfighters who need a little extra cash and are willing to capture video footage of fellow cockfighters in the act and turn it over to the organization, Pacelle said. They could also be cockfighters who have a “crisis of conscience” and realize that what they’re doing is wrong.

“All you have to find is one person who’s willing to take some video,” Pacelle said. “So, we want to tell the cockfighters, you better be worried about everybody who’s at your event because it just takes one of them, a cockfighter, who says, ‘I want to make $5,000.'”

Animal Wellness Action operates a tip line on its website, where people can report animal fighting anonymously and receive reward money if their information leads to the arrest and prosecution of animal fighters, including dogfighters.

Stronger laws

Pacelle and his organization are advocating for a bill in Congress known as the FIGHT Act, which would increase restrictions on animal fighting. Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Tyler, is co-sponsoring the legislation.

In a statement to the News-Journal, Moran said: “Animal cruelty, including brutal practices like cockfighting and dogfighting, has no place in our society. I fully support and commend the work of local law enforcement in holding offenders accountable, as seen in the recent arrest in East Texas.”

Moran said the bill will give “communities the tools they need to put an end to these inhumane and criminal acts. Protecting the safety and integrity of our neighborhoods remains a top priority.”

Pacelle and Chambers aren’t giving up on their efforts to end cockfighting anytime soon.

“We just are not going to be content until they’re shut down,” Pacelle said. “This just does not work any longer for our country.”