Dear Mr. Stein,

Since we have not had the pleasure of meeting personally, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Steve Hindi, and I am the president of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). We are the lead organization trying to persuade Ms. Duff to discontinue her association with rodeos and bullfighting arenas. I would like to address your comments in representation of Ms. Duff to the “National Enquirer” for the record, since neither Ms. Duff nor her parents have seen fit to respond to the issues raised.

You state that, “After all her high-profile and generous work on behalf of animals, Ms. Duff is now being aggressively and unfairly singled out by a small fringe group that touts itself as an animal rights group.”

I am unaware of Ms. Duff’s “high profile and generous work on behalf of animals.” Perhaps you could enlighten us as to exactly what that is. I am aware that she is a former spokesperson for Return to Freedom (RTF), but I know of no particular duties or time/effort put into that position, so it appears that her main motivation was to promote a positive image by allowing RTF to use her name and celebrity for their cause. It was a nice thing to do for which she derived a benefit, but it didn’t require much generosity on her part.

As for Ms. Duff’s supposedly cruelty-free cosmetics line, that is a for-profit endeavor. While we encourage more cruelty-free products in the marketplace, most who develop and promote those products do so for financial gain, and that is certainly the case with Ms. Duff. Celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney, Heather McCartney, Alicia Silverstone, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Sheen and others have all given generously and selflessly of their time and effort. Ms. Duff has never put herself out to that degree for animals or as far as I can tell, any other cause.

As for your charge that we are singling out Ms. Duff, we are simply pointing out some rather glaring inconsistencies in her claim that she cares about animals, versus her performances at animal abusive venues. It’s a little like wearing a fur coat to a Fur-Free Friday demonstration. No matter what you may have done for animals beforehand, you have to expect to take some heat for such faux pas behavior.

While I previously stated that SHARK is the lead organization trying to persuade Ms. Duff to disassociate with rodeos, we are certainly not the only organization to condemn rodeos. For your convenience, I am including a list of organizations that stand against rodeo animal abuse. No legitimate humane organization nor caring individual supports rodeo animal abuse, and performing at rodeos and attracting people into that venue obviously supports the abuse.

When you charge that SHARK has, “…sent threatening letters…” it sounds like you are getting dangerously close to slander. The letter we sent to Ms. Duff is on our website, and it is not threatening in any way. Furthermore, we made no demands in our letter, but rather requested that Ms. Duff reconsider what she is doing. I invite you to produce the “threatening letters” you claim SHARK sent to Hilary Duff or publicly retract the statement and refrain from making it in the future.

You then claim that SHARK was trying to stop Ms. Duff from performing at a “musical/sporting arena in Barcelona, Spain.” You go on to give a detailed history of that musical/sporting facility, and list some of the people who have performed there. In fact, SHARK was trying to persuade Ms. Duff not to perform in a bullring in Madrid, not a musical/sporting facility in Barcelona. Again I invite you to explain yourself. Was this just another mistake or are you just that desperate to minimize the issue?

Finally, the Enquirer article includes the following statement from you: “The Houston show, like many rodeos, gives out thousands of educational scholarships throughout the year, which is one of the most important reasons Ms. Duff chose to participate.”

Are we to take from this statement that others who abuse animals such as horse slaughterhouses, cockfighters, dogfighters, canned hunters and the like need only provide educational scholarships to win Ms. Duff’s support for their activities? That seems to be what you are saying. Furthermore, I would challenge the “thousands of educational scholarships throughout the year” claim on its face. Can you provide any proof that this occurs?

I hope you will respond to these issues. If you do I will put your response on our HilaryDuffIsCruel.com website for everyone to see, in an effort to give you and Ms. Duff a platform to make your positions clear.

Here is an alternative for Ms. Duff. If she truly cares about animals, I would encourage her to sign the following statement:

I, Hilary Duff, pledge not to promote, perform at, or participate in any event that involves physical harm to animals. This includes, but is not limited to rodeos, bullfights, and circuses. I further pledge that I will not perform at any facility whose stated purpose promotes inflicting harm on animals. This includes, but is not limited to, bullrings.

If Ms. Duff signs this pledge, it will effectively end our campaign, including the related website and future attention from our Tiger video truck.

By the way, since you pointed out that other people have performed at rodeos, we will start offering the pledge to these individuals, as well as others who have never performed in abusive venues. Hilary has a short-term opportunity to be the first to sign this pledge, and this would be a very good public relations move for her so long as she is sincere.

In closing, I look forward to your reply, and hope that Ms. Duff will ultimately choose to conduct herself in a way that supports her stated love for animals.

Sincerely,
Steve Hindi
President