Anthony Devore: “Shocked, shocked” to find cockfighting at a cockfight?

Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission founder & president caught at a cockfight after repeatedly denying involvement

            SHADY GROVE,  Oklahoma––The only evident resemblance between Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission founder and president Anthony DeVore and Jesus,  much as DeVore likes to claim unjust persecution,  is that DeVore was apparently betrayed by one of his own associates three times before the first cock crowed on June 7,  2025 at a cockfighting derby hosted by one Jeff Coleman in Shady Grove,  Oklahoma.

That gave Showing Animals Respect & Kindness time to send out a morning alert to membership appealing for urgent calls to the McIntosh County Sheriff and the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service,  asking them to interdict “a large cockfighting operation in progress at 426742 East 1100 Road near Shady Grove,”  with a property entrance “1.7 miles east of the intersection of South 4250 Road and East 1100 Road in McIntosh County,”  geo coordinates 35°25’19.2″N 95°25’05.6″W.

“Location was cleared out quickly”

“The location was cleared out quickly,”  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness said in a follow-up email seven hours later.

“We are unsure if the cockfighters were tipped off,  or if law enforcement showed up.  In any case the cockfight is over,”  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness announced.

“There was one interesting attendee at this cockfight,”  the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness follow-up continued:  Anthony DeVore,  president of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission.

“We always knew they were a front group for cockfighters,  but they like to pretend otherwise. Now Anthony DeVore,  himself,  was just caught at an illegal cockfight.”

Picture is worth many thousand of Devore’s words

Like Captain Renault in the 1942 film Casablanca,  who pronounced himself “Shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on” in Humphrey Bogart’s casino,  DeVore may declare he was “Shocked,  shocked!” to discover cockfighting going on at a cockfight.

But DeVore may be more shocked to discover he was on Candid Camera,  metaphorically speaking,  and that the picture is worth much more than any thousand of his words in defining who he really is and what he represents.

“Third generation gamefowl breeder”

Devore,  as Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission president,  has denied involvement in cockfighting much more often,  and for far longer,  than the Apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus on the night Jesus was arrested.

On July 2, 2022,  for example,  the Tulsa,  Oklahoma investigative news website The Frontier quoted DeVore alleging as a “third generation gamefowl breeder,”  that “there are more reasons than money that people raise gamefowl.

“Many people who raise horses and cattle and dogs have bloodlines that they maintain,”  DeVore told The Frontier.

“I have bloodlines that I have and have kept since I was 10 years old,”  DeVore claimed.  “We take great pride in our birds.  It’s a multi-generational hobby.”

“The Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission is in no way connected to any type of illegal activity”

On February 20,  2023,  DeVore asserted to Ben Felder of The Oklahoman,  in Oklahoma City,  that “The Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission is in no way connected to any type of illegal activity. No funds were raised from cockfighting or cockfighting venues.”

On March 14,  2024,  Sean Murphy of Associated Press reported,  “Anthony DeVore,  head of the Gamefowl Commission,  says his organization has 15,000 members and described them as mostly hard-working rural Oklahomans.  His group has raised more than $70,000 to lobby lawmakers and is seeking to replicate the same model in several other conservative Southern states, including in Alabama,  Arkansas,  Kentucky and Mississippi.

“Devore said he and others raise the birds to participate in poultry shows and sell them as breeding stock overseas.  While cockfighting is illegal in many countries,  it remains legal and popular in some Mexican states,  the Philippines,  and some countries in southeast Asia.”

“Not for fighting purposes”

Said DeVore,  “We represent game fowl farmers who breed and raise game fowl,  but not for fighting purposes.”

Reported Nondoc.com founder Michael McNutt on September 11, 2024,  “As cockfighting-related arrests have increased over the past 18 months, the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission has stepped up its efforts to get involved in various political races.

“The organization’s president, Anthony DeVore, went on TikTok to denounce Carter County Sheriff Chris Bryant for making cockfighting-related arrests,  enforcing laws against animal cruelty, illegal immigration and drug trafficking.”

From $60 million to $400 million in 18 months

Updated McNutt on November 18,  2024,  reporting on the Oklahoma Game Fowl Commission convention,  “Anthony DeVore,  president of the Oklahoma Game Fowl Commission,  said [gamefowl] breeders have a $400 million economic impact in Oklahoma by buying feed and supplies and employing workers.

“In an April 2023 press release,”  McNutt noted,  “the organization claimed its impact was $60 million.”

Argued DeVore to McNutt,  “The main thing is we ought to be able to raise gamefowl without somebody’s interpretation of,  you know,   ‘Hey, we think you’re going to fight them.’”

“DeVore has no limits”

Laughed Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle,  “DeVore has no limits.  Most cockfighters want to keep a low profile because they know they are criminals and don’t want to attract more attention from law enforcement.

“But this guy goes in front of the buildings in the town center and says that the cops are crooks for busting cockfighters.

“He also had the temerity to register as a lobbyist and hang out at the state capitol to try to decriminalize cockfighting.

“Shameless doesn’t begin to describe this guy.”

“Cooked up scheme to pull a fast one”

DeVore in early April 2025 nearly sneaked a bill through the Arkansas legislature that would have disabled the state law against cockfighting.

The bill,  HB 1611,  had already cleared the Arkansas House of Representatives and was before an Arkansas state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when “Kevin Chambers,  who has worked with Steve Hindi of Animal Wellness Action on so many cockfighting raids,  appeared and unmasked U.S. Gamefowl Commission spokesperson Blake Pearce as an active member of a multi-generational cockfighting family,”  Pacelle emailed to ANIMALS 24-7.

“Pearce and U.S. Gamefowl Commission president Anthony DeVore cooked up this whole scheme to pull a fast one on lawmakers.  We got it just in time,”  Pacelle said.

Added Pacelle,  “Pearce and DeVore have repeatedly failed to gain any traction with similar efforts in the Oklahoma capitol to weaken that state’s anti-cockfighting law. Despite forming a PAC and distributing tens of thousands of dollars to state lawmakers,  not one of their three bills even made it out of its first committee this year.”

Solar energy business

DeVore,  while claiming a master’s degree in criminal justice and a doctorate in education,  has according to his LinkedIn page operated an Ardmore solar energy contracting business called Texoma Solar Solutions since 2015.

The Better Business Bureau has a perspective on that.

“According to information in BBB files,  this business is no longer in business,”  begins the Better Business Bureau report on Texoma Solar Solutions.          

“BBB files indicate that this business has a pattern of complaints concerning customer service and repair issues,”  the report continues,  “such as consumers having a difficult time getting hold of the business or having a bad experience with the business’s customer service.

“Consumers report a wide range of repair issues.

“On April 3,  2023,”  the report says,  “the Better Business Bureau submitted a written request to the business encouraging them to address the pattern of complaints.  The BBB is awaiting a response from the business.”

Lawsuits

Two years later the Better Business Bureau is apparently still waiting.

The Better Business Bureau page on Texoma Solar Solutions mentions that DeVore also appears to have done business as Sunset Solar & Electric Power,  LLC.

The Better Business Bureau entry goes on to detail 34 separate sets of unresolved consumer complaints about Texoma Solar Solutions.

Multiple lawsuits reportedly pending against DeVore in connection with his solar installation business have either never gone to trial,  been dropped,  or were settled out of court.

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