Titus County Sheriff Arrests Cockfighting Kingpin After Undercover Investigators with Animal Wellness Action and SHARK Penetrate Massive July 4 Derby

Mount Pleasant, Texas — Animal Wellness Action and Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) applauded the Titus County Sheriff and his team for arresting Timothy Thompson for hosting a massive cockfighting event at his complex in Mount Pleasant, Texas, on Friday night. The two animal welfare organizations received a tip about a July 4 evening cockfighting derby and penetrated the event with undercover investigators, droning the fighting event and also getting inside the cockfighting complex, recording sickening footage of staged animal fights with the birds affixed with knives on their legs to deliver lethal stab wounds and punctures in the enclosed pit.

Investigators also documented two separate cockfighting events in Kaufman County on Saturday, July 5. The organizations have provided detailed evidence to the Kaufman County Sheriffs’ Office.

The two organizations droned the same Mount Pleasant location on March 15 and discovered an event attended by 200 cockfighters. On that date, sheriff’s deputies did respond in force when alerted to the illegal animal fighting derby at the home of Tim Thompson, but the cockfighters locked the gate upon the arrival of the police, and the sheriff’s office chose not to seek a warrant to enter the property, gather evidence, and make arrests. In the July 4 evening spectacle, however, after our investigators presented inside-the-pit footage at the sheriff’s office, authorities did obtain a warrant, deployed to the cockfighting venue, and apprehended Thompson, who is being held. Other charges should be filed against the dozens who attended the Independence Day spectacle.

“Tim Thompson is a major player in cockfighting in northeast Texas, with a fighting pit and hundreds of fighting birds at his cockfighting complex in Mount Pleasant,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “This is the second time we’ve caught him organizing a major cockfighting derby, and that is a felony under state and federal law. His world is about to change because of his serial violations of anti-cruelty laws.”

“We have abundant video evidence of a major cockfighting derby, and the property is owned by Tim Thompson,” said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK. “It’s hard to believe this guy kept committing crimes after we exposed his cockfighting complex in March, but he obviously thinks he’s above the law. He is not.”

Animal Wellness Action and SHARK have teamed up to investigate and penetrate a dozen fighting pits in the cockfighting corridor from southeast Oklahoma to the Dallas area. The organizations have conducted investigations in Dallas, Ellis, Hunt, and Martin counties, and also this weekend, two undercover operations in Kaufman County.

The organizations have also conducted a series of major investigations in Oklahoma. On successive weekends in May and June, undercover investigators with Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, and SHARK recorded Anthony Devore and Blake Pearce participating in illegal cockfighting events held in McIntosh County, Okla. The two men founded the United States Gamefowl Commission and have publicly advocated for weakening anti-cockfighting laws in Oklahoma and Texas, but also claimed that they do not engage in cockfighting or any other criminal activities. Our investigators caught both men participating at the cockfighting pit. Neither man has been arrested yet, but the organizations have demanded that arrests be made for their brazen violations of the law.

Animal Wellness Action and SHARK provided law enforcement with fight schedules, still pictures and videos of the gamecock farms with hundreds of tethered birds, video of birds slashing each other with knives, cockhouses full of birds delivered for the morning and evening fights, and a structure at the center of it all that was the cockfighting pit.

Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are advocating for passage of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, H.R. 3946 and S. 1454 which has been endorsed by the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas and dozens of county sheriffs, including those on or near the border. Officials there say it is critical legislation that addresses a pervasive and deeply troubling issue: the rampant and barbaric practice of animal fighting, which is inextricably linked to a host of other serious crimes.

United States-based cockfighters are deeply involved in a massive trade with Mexican cartels that control many major cockfighting venues south of the border. This illicit activity is creating a separate border crisis centered around animal trafficking, posing serious threats to both Americans and Mexicans.

“Our investigations show a criminal network of cockfighters knowingly flouting state and federal laws. That’s why passing the FIGHT act in Congress is an urgent priority for the nation,” Pacelle said.

U.S. Representatives from Texas who cosponsored the newly introduced FIGHT Act are Lloyd Doggett, D-37; Lance Gooden, R-5; and Troy Nehls, R-22. Texas’s senior Senator, Republican John Cornyn, is a cosponsor of the Senate bill led by Cory Booker, D-N.J., and John Kennedy, R-La. The House bill is led by Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon.

Undercover footage of the Titus County and McIntosh County cockfighting derbies is available to journalists on request. A fact sheet on the FIGHT Act can be found here.