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SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness
SHARK
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Gored Horse Dies at NHSFRHere's the Latest!View 2006 Video and PhotosMedia Exposes Abuse, CorruptionMore Rodeo Video: TheCruelTruth.comContact the Sponsors of this Abuse!Ag Officials Betray Humane AssurancesRodeoCruelty.comWho's Who in Illinois' Rodeo CorruptionWhat You Can DoSHARK Rebuts Pro-NHSFR PropagandaCrucial Concerns for Illinois RodeosNo one can claim ignorance: Here's what officials knowIllinois Times: Another Rodeo GroupieNHSFR Sponsor, Rodeo School Operator Convicted of with Sex with ChildrenIllinois Congressman Favors Killing Horses for FoodWhat Rodeo REALLY Teaches Children and TeensRodeo "Family Values"?!Why are the FBI and State Police Involved?Cowboy PrayerMore Cowboy CriminalsThe State's Attorneys: Blind Eye to AbuseIllinois Corruption
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Why are the FBI and State Police Involved in SHARK's efforts to Document the NHSRF?
Statement made by Steve Hindi, SHARK President See Television Coverage of this Event On Friday, July 14, I sent an E-mail to Dr. Colleen O’Keefe at the Illinois Department of Agriculture, inquiring as to who would be the police authority at the fairgrounds during the National High School rodeo finals. Dr. O’Keefe passed my request along, and earlier this week, State Police Captain James Wolf called and left a message on my answering machine. We were unable to reach him on return calls. Yesterday, I arrived at the fairgrounds unannounced at approximately 12:15 p.m. to document practice at the practice arena. I was equipped with a videocam and a still camera. Department of Agriculture personnel knew that SHARK investigators would be documenting NHSRF-related events. I wasn’t out of my car for more than a few minutes before I was approached by two men in plain clothes. One man identified himself as being with the FBI. The other man identified himself as Lt. Don Buckley of the state police. They said they wanted to have a few words with me, and that Captain James Wolf was on his way. They asked me to go to a building about a block away, and I cooperated. When I got there I was escorted inside the building, and into a room. The man from the FBI and Lt. Buckley were joined by Capt. Wolf, who was in uniform, and a woman in street clothes whom I believe was also with the state police, but whose name I don’t remember. The police asked if I was recording the conversation. I said I was not. Captain Wolf told me that the police had received “intel” (his term) that we were going to release the rodeo animals. I short, I told Captain Wolf that this was ridiculous. I said that I have read of times that rodeo animals had gotten out of their pens, and though activists are often accused, it is just a contrived story by rodeo people after someone forgets to close a gate. I was questioned on this issue for a while. The police asked the same basic question a few times in different ways, and I kept giving them the same answer – that we are here to videotape and take still pictures. We are not here to impede the rodeo in any way, as this would ruin our documentation effort. I told them that we have operated this way for many years at rodeos around the state and across the country, and even beyond US borders with other issues such as bullfighting in Mexico. Although our very presence, if known, limits the cruelty rodeo people perpetrate on their animal victims, we make no deliberate effort to impede the rodeo in any way. There was insinuation that the rodeo association had video rights to the performances. I was interested as to why the police would have concerns about what would be a civil, not a criminal matter. In any case, an Ag. Department representative has already stated that there would be no attempt to keep us from videotaping. The police also insinuated that it might be a violation of law to be videotaping and accidentally record someone speaking within the vicinity. I said that this was ridiculous. If this was an attempt to intimidate us, it didn’t work. I could have walked out at any time, instead I voluntarily stayed and answered all their questions fully and truthfully. We have nothing to hide. We violated no laws during the last high school rodeo finals, and we will violate no laws this time. In fact, it was the rodeo people who at the 2000/2001 finals committed numerous criminal acts of cruelty against animals, who made threats against our investigators, spewed obscenities and even stoned our video vehicle. I engaged the FBI agent regarding interaction between the FBI and SHARK back in 2002, when an internal police report from Albuquerque, New Mexico disclosed that FBI agents claimed that SHARK was making bomb threats against the Olympics, trying to start riots on the torch route, and tried to start physical confrontations with police. These claims were uttlerly false, malicious and cowardly. At the conclusion of our discussion, Captain Wolf and Lt. Buckley both gave me their cards. The FBI agent did not. I gave the police my cell phone number. Capt. Wolf gave me two phone numbers that he said we may call in case any problems arise between rodeo people and SHARK documenters. I believe there are two types of terrorists. The first uses violence to disrupt and cause unrest and damage to society. The second type of terrorist uses lies, rumor and innuendo of impending violence or criminal activity to accomplish the same ends. This false and utterly ridiculous claim against SHARK has law enforcement agencies working on a nonexistent threat when it is safe to assume they have real work to do. SHARK has a right, and as an animal protection organization, a moral responsibility to document any cruelty and criminal behavior at the upcoming rodeo, and that is what we will do. As I stand here I don’t know how the police received their “intel” about what was supposedly going to happen at the rodeo. Did the rodeo people fabricate a story to try to get the police to keep us away? Is this false report a move by the governor’s office to intimidate animal protectors into standing down? Did the FBI make a repeat performance of the utterly false allegations it made about SHARK during the lead-up to the 2002 winter Olympics? I challenge Governor Blagojevich to make public everything having to do with these allegations, including the name of the person or persons who concocted them. Filing false information with the authorities is, after all, a criminal act. I hope the media, especially the Journal-Register, a rodeo sponsor, will pursue this story and help unearth whoever is responsible. Those who made the allegations should face prosecution for making false claims to the police, and they will likely face a lawsuit from SHARK. If the high school rodeo association is behind this nonsense, I would challenge the governor to throw these finals out of the state. If the rodeo association did not make the allegations, then who did? Come on Governor Blagojevich, time to “Cowboy Up.” Now I have a few allegations of my own to make, and they are based on fact. Neither the National High School Rodeo Association, nor its big brother the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, publicly releases reports on what animals are injured and killed at their rodeos. Instead these associations distribute a baseless and ridiculous statistic that is nothing more than propaganda for the weak-minded. I must mention that the Journal-Register, a rodeo sponsor, published a version of this baseless propaganda in yesterday’s edition. Neither the NHSRA or the PRCA publicizes the identities of violators of supposed rodeo “humane rules,” or the discipline handed down in those cases. Because of the frequency and repetitive nature of the violations we document, we have no reason to believe that those rules are enforced. SHARK has been videotaping rodeo humane violations for well over a decade, and the only response we have had from rodeo people is that they continuously redouble their efforts to prevent our documentation. I ask, why would a legitimate government or ethical corporation sponsor these lying, cheating, animal-abusing criminals? The answer is – they wouldn’t. Worst of all, the Land of Lincoln is partnering with those who teach young people to abuse animals. This is a sorry and shameful time for the formerly great state of Illinois. |
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