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SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness
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USAF Thunderbirds are Supporting Animal AbusersWhat You Can Do!U.S. Soldiers Taunt Crippled Dog In IraqRodeoCruelty.comTheCruelTruth.com: SHARK VideoCorporateThugs.com
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ArmyAnimalAbuse.comThe United States Army has found itself in recent years stretched to the limit of its capacity--struggling at times just to adequately equip and train our soldiers. So, why then is the Army giving $2 million dollars a year to the corrupt and cruel rodeo industry? It seems a ludicrous idea to us at SHARK and to decent, caring folks everywhere. Apparently, the U.S. Army believes that giving $2 million taxpayer dollars to animal abusers is an acceptable trade off for the opportunity to woo the sort of people that rodeo attracts. Since 2004, the Army has been sponsoring the world's largest rodeo association, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), the Professional Bull Riders (see the truth about bull riding here), the "Bulls and Broncs: Outlaws of Rodeo" (operated by convicted horse abuser, David Morehead.) and a "team" of abusers, er, individual rodeo contestants.
Army partners with cowboysFrom ARNews, the Army News ServiceBy Cpl. Matt Millham May 19, 2004 LAS VEGAS (Army News Service, May 19, 2004) -- The Army announced May 15 that it is sponsoring a rodeo team of seven cowboys and a cowgirl, as part of a partnership with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
Yee, as they say, haa. At a time when good American men and woman are in Iraq and Afghanistan with inadequate equipment and armor, and are being sent back in body bags, the Rodeo Mafia is getting more government welfare, this time from the US Army.
Earlier this year, the Army announced a partnership with the Professional Bull Riders and began sponsoring a separate team of three cowboys April 17. The Army is now sponsoring participants in hundreds of rodeos throughout the United States and Canada.
Even more welfare for rodeo thugs and even less for real Americans. How sick is this?
Maj. Gen. Rochelle can only be referring to the morons in our society. Why the Army wants to enlist more Charles Graners and Lynndie Englands is completely beyond us. Go to (CowboyCriminals and "Rodeo Family Values") to see the character of rodeo people and decide if these are the kind of individuals you want to represent the US around the world.
The partnership, which will run through the end of this year with an option to renew for 2005 is "part of the overall Army team", which includes partnerships with NASCAR, Professional Bull Riding and the Arena Football League among others. But, said Rochelle, "What we are doing is, more than anything, in support of the troops overseas."
There's nothing wrong with sponsoring NASCAR and Arena Football. There is everything wrong with sponsoring rodeo animal abuse. This brings shame to the Army, and undeserved shame to the men and woman soldiers of the United States. The real shame goes to the unprincipled individuals who made this decision. Someone should see if those responsible for the Army sponsorship are getting any unexplained deposits in their savings accounts.
Steven J. Hatchell, commissioner of the PRCA, expects the partnership to be a boon to his organization as well as to the Army because, he said, traditional rodeo sponsors like alcohol and tobacco companies made televising the events problematic.
There is no question that the Army sponsorship is an undeserved boon to the Rodeo Mafia. There is no positive return to the Army. Just bad recruits and a worse reputation over time.
"We are a television society and this helps us with television in a significant way," Hatchell said.
Hatchell correctly says this because now the Rodeo Mafia can try to cover its corruption and animal abuse under a cloak of undeserved respectability, compliments of the US Army.
Hatchell said that with the Army partnership the PRCA is planning an expansion that will lead to increased television exposure similar to that of the Professional Golf Association. Already, he said, rodeo is seventh overall in attendance for all sports and saw an increase in attendance of four percent last year - the highest of any sport.
This is a ridiculous statement, and very clearly exposed to be rodeo propaganda in a 2007 release from the respected people at Gallup. Rodeo doesn't even make the radar in polls among legitimate sports.
Most rodeos are very poorly attended, and would cease to exist at all but for corporate handouts from cruel and unprincipled companies like Dodge Trucks and Coca-Cola, and from welfare handouts from government entities like the US Army.
An estimated 23 million people attended the PRCA's roughly 700 sanctioned rodeos last year.
This attendance estimate is overstated to the point of being comical.
The PRCA's premier events appear on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2 and Outdoor Life Network.
The PRCA is on television because it PAYS to be on television. Real sports (football, baseball, basketball, etc.) are paid huge sums by networks for the privilege of being broadcast. The Rodeo Mafia has to pay to have its rodeo aired, and then only unscrupulous networks will cooperate, especially since the rodeo insists on editing out parts of the rodeo, like when calves are jerked down, and all animal injuries and deaths.
The announcement of the partnership came against the backdrop of one of professional rodeo's biggest competitions, the Pace Picante ProRodeo Chute-out at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, where $500,000 in prize money was up for grabs. Three of the Army's newly-sponsored cowboys competed in the three-day event that ended May 15.
It should be telling to the Army that Pace (Pace Picante, a division of Campbell Soup), has withdrawn its sponsorship of rodeo following a SHARK campaign against the giant, multinational food producer. Now SHARK must regrettably expose the U.S. Army's role in abusing animals.
All three of the Army's competitors made it to the semifinal round, but only one, steer wrestler Luke Branquinho, made it to the final round of the rodeo. The PRCA has renamed the final round of its rodeos the U.S. Army Championship Round for all future rodeo events as long as the Army partnership lasts. Branquinho won in the final round and took home more than $20,000 in prize money.
The Army's other PRCA rodeo competitors are:
Trevor Brazile, who competes in tie-down roping, steer roping and team roping, won back-to-back all-around world titles in 2002 and 2003 at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. He was the first cowboy ever to qualify for the Wrangler NFR in four events.
Trevor Brazile abuses three to four month-old calves and "busts" steers. SHARK investigators have personally witnessed Brazile when his victims have been injured, and we are taken with the utter lack of any obvious compassion on his part. For videos, click HERE and HERE to see what kind of "hero" Trevor Brazile is.
Fred Whitfield has a total of seven world titles -- six in tie-down roping and one all-around. He will be inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in August.
Fred Whitfield, like Trevor Brazile, abuses three to four month-old baby calves. He's no hero.
Andy Bolich, a bareback rider, has won titles in Kalispell, Mont., and Omak, Wash.
Andy Bolich gets on a tame, domesticated horse, and when the chute gate opens, that horse is abused (spurring, a buck strap that drives the horse wild, painful electric jolts) to the point that the horse temporarily acts wild. Hey Andy -- why don't you get a real job and stop taking money that could give good American soldiers the equipment they need?
Why should anyone who does THIS for a living be as proud as an American who has pledged his or her life for the defense of this country? Why is the Army wooing degenerates from this abusive, cowardly excuse for a sport?
Brittany Pozzi, a barrel racer, became the first rookie to qualify for the Wrangler NFR at the top of the standings in 2003. She finished seventh overall in her first PRCA season.
The only event that requires skill in rodeo: Barrel Racing.
Zack Oakes, a bull rider, won RodeoHouston and the PRCA's Xtreme Bulls in Clovis, N.M. earlier this year.
If bulls were “born to buck,” they wouldn’t have to be spurred, have tormenting straps tightened around their flanks, or get blasted with thousands of volts of electricity. Real sports require more skill and grit than trying to last 8 seconds on an abused, captive animal.
The US Army should be ashamed to give money that could be used for the protection of American soldier to such a cruel industry.
(Editor's note: Cpl. Matt Millham is a member of the 14th Public Affairs Detachment.)
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