SHARK is in the process of sending all 10,000+ photographs and over 40 hours of unedited footage taken by our investigators at the 2006 NHSFR.

SHARK Commentary: The previous statement by Ms. Herbert, Ag Dept. spokesperson, is absolutely false. It is one in a string of mistruths and deceptive statements that has come from the Ag Dept since their collusion with the rodeo industry has been under that spotlight.

On September 22, 2006, SHARK's president and another staff member hand-delivered footage to the Ag Department's, which included numerous incidents of shocking and spiking of animals at the National High School Finals Rodeo.  This belies Ms. Herbert's claim that, "He never provided us with any evidence to do an investigation with."

Let's look at the rest of Ms. Herbert's statement. On September 25, 2006, subsequent the abuse DVD being delivered to the Ag Department, and in response to an email from a SHARK representative summing up the brief meeting, Jackie Eckert, a representative with the Ag Department's Animal Welfare Division, sent the following email message:

  "Thank you for the CD.  The Sangamon County State's Attorney has requested a copy of all video tapes, still photographs, or other evidence you have that may be relevant to the issues of alleged abuse."

  A similarly worded letter addressed was sent to SHARK's mailing address. At no time does this communication ask for anything to be sent to the Ag Department. Instead it appears to be a continuation of the misdirection that had been given out by the Illinois Department of Agriculture since these criminal abuses were reported.

The communication also does NOT ask for "the unedited version" of anything. In fact, the inclusion of the word "relevant" would seem to indicate that what was desired, supposedly by the Sangamon County State's Attorney, was edited footage, which was already in the hands of the Ag Department.

Furthermore, the claim that, "The Sangamon County State's Attorney has requested a copy of all video tapes, still photographs, or other evidence…" was highly suspect from the beginning. The State's Attorney has publicly stated that he can do nothing with the video footage until the Department has done an investigation.  This is consistent with our position on the matter.  For that reason we have refused to deliver our evidence directly to the Sangamon County State's Attorney's Office. Given the State's Attorney's public position on this matter, we are left to question if the State's Attorney ever actually made such a request to the Ag Department.