From Gov. Blagojevich to the "Vet Twins":
The Who's Who of Illinois' Rodeo Corruption
IllinoisCorruption.com exposes a story of animal abuse and government corruption too strange for fiction. This debacle involves a corrupt governor, an impotent, incompetent and corrupt Illinois Department of Agriculture, investigations into fictional plots by the FBI, and hundreds of thousands dollars stolen from taxpayers.
The cozy relationship between the Rodeo Mafia and the State of Illinois began some time prior to Illinois' hosting the 2000 National High School Rodeo Associations Finals Rodeo (NHSRAF). The taxpayers will never know just what kind of shady dealings went on between these two corrupt entities to work out a deal to bring in animal abuse and ship out the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act, but there are a few things we do know:
The collaboration between Illinois and the Rodeo Mafia occurred during the Republican administration of Governor George Ryan, a man whose long political career was noteworthy for its equally long list of people accusing Ryan of corruption. Ryan brought the National High School Finals Rodeo to Springfield in 2000 and 2001. Both years were shrouded in controversy as, in the case of rodeos around the state of Illinois, humane laws were openly and repeatedly violated. At the time, the Department of Agriculture repeatedly made public statements indicating that all was well, and that the care given to rodeo animals was exceptional. In fact, SHARK had extensive video documentation of animals being shocked, spiked, beaten, and enduring other abuses.
The violations of Illinois Humane Law occurred during every single day of the NHSRAF in both 2000 and 2001. Some of the worst abuse at NHSFR 2000-01 occurred in between rodeo performances, during practice, as this video clearly documents.
Rodeo stock contractor David Morehead (who also pled guilty to 36 counts of horse cruelty), the owner of Three Hills Rodeo, was personally involved in much of the shocking of horses and bulls that went on, while others were responsible for the tail twisting, tail pulling and tail raking that occurred mainly in the case of calves and steers. Mr. Morehead has also been caught on tape numerous times using a 5,000 volt hot-shot electric prod on horses and bulls. Watch David Morehead shocking animals.
Ignoring the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act was really nothing new for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, even though it is the agency that is charged with enforcing the Act. The Illinois Department of Agriculture was at best an obstacle in every piece of progressive humane legislation that ever passed in the "Land of Lincoln." This included efforts to ban pigeon shooting, a vile form of canned hunting in which pigeons were loaded and then released from small boxes to be shot at close range. Another noteworthy humane effort thwarted by the Department was the effort (eventually successful) to ban horse slaughter.
The media did a fair job of covering the rodeo cruelty issue during those years, and SHARK sent it’s Tiger Truck to circle the state capitol for a few nights. This was a big embarrassment for then-Governor Ryan. After being repeatedly exposed and embarrassed for its failure to do its job, and possibly a few choice words from Ryan, the Illinois Department of Agriculture signaled that it was ready for a change.
The Ag Department's strong bent toward supporting animal abuse was briefly altered following the 2001 NHSRAF. For two years in a row SHARK provided media around the state footage of rodeo animals being shocked, beaten or otherwise abused in clear violation of the law, completely contradicting claims of humane treatment by the governor's office and the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Agriculture vowed that it would start doing its job with respect to enforcing the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act for animals in rodeos.
The Department's decision to do its job resulted in far more protection for rodeo animals than had ever existed in the State of Illinois. For the first time ever, rules were created to protect rodeo animals.Click here to read more about this. Since then animals in rodeos have continued to be abused, but to a lesser degree. For the first time, they had some measure of protection. Numerous stubbornly abusive stock contractors were warned to cease abuse practices.
Two contractors who just didn’t “get it” were charged and convicted. Click here and here to read those stories.
Then came the election and administration of Democrat Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich was heralded as a change for the governor’s office, following a Ryan administration that was continuously racked with rumors of corruption.
Blagojevich’s promise to bring change proved true. Too bad he never told voters that it would be a change for the worse.
All of that hard-won progress for the animals went down the toilet when Blagojevich was elected governor. Blagojevich appointed longtime politician Charles Hartke as Director of the Department of Agriculture, and it was all downhill from there. Hartke, a southern Illinois good-old-boy and former state representative created a team with which he would be comfortable, and wasted no time in surrounding himself with the most uncaring group of hacks that apparently could be found in the state. The changes included Dr. Colleen O’Keefe to head the Bureau of Animal Welfare, and Amy Bliefnick to manage the Illinois State Fair.
Animals in rodeos were not only returned to their unprotected status, but Illinois and its Department of Agriculture were more cozy with the Rodeo Mafia than ever before. Hartke and his staff made numerous trips to rodeos out of state to party and wine and dine with the very people his department should have been prosecuting for bringing organized animal abuse into the state. During the 2006 NHSRAF, Hartke even took a turn in the role of rodeo announcer to let his animal abusing friends know where he stood -- with them, and against the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act.
But it wasn't just the NHSRAF that was given a free pass to abuse animals. While Hartke was attending rodeos and rodeo parties and banquets, he was not to be found meeting with the unpaid volunteers who act as humane investigators around the state. Hartke was more interested in tending to his ties with out of state rodeo associations than with Illinois humane workers.
We cannot say at this time exactly why Governor Blagojevich became determined to bring the controversial and criminally abusive NHSFR back to Illinois in 2006. We can, however, say that Blagojevich has a history of doing favors for people who reward him. Are we suggesting that there was a payoff of some kind to the Governor or his cronies? Absolutely.
The dealings to bring the rodeo back to Illinois was suspect to say the least. Consider the fact that the director of the agency charged with enforcing humane laws, personally delivered a $55,000 check to the National High School Rodeo Association at a rodeo in Wyoming, as reported in the August 9, 2004 edition of The Leader newspaper:
"A $55,000 check helped convince the National High School Rodeo Association to return its rodeo to Illinois in 2006 and in 2007. With check in hand, Chuck Hartke, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Kevin Gordon, assistant state fair manager, and Amy Bliefnick, newly named bureau chief of business services, saddled up and traveled to a Wyoming rodeo to meet with the National High School Rodeo Finals Board to lasso the deal."
Was Mr. Hartke unaware that there is a United States Post Office, or that he could have wired the money? Why did Hartke and an entourage need to travel to Wyoming on the public dole?
But that wasn’t all that Illinois handed over to the NHSRA. We know that over $200,000 was paid to the NHSRA for the “honor” of bringing criminal animal abuse back to the “Land of Lincoln.”
Once aware that the NHSFR was returning to Illinois in 2006, SHARK met with a Department of Agriculture representatives and outlined humane suggestions based on our personal experiences with past high school rodeos. We then put our issues of concern along with proposed solutions in writing and sent them to Department of Agriculture legal counsel Margaret van Dijk.
It was weeks before van Dijk responded, and when she did we knew that the Department was under the firm control of the Rodeo Mafia. Van Dijk, while acknowledging that rodeo animals were covered under the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act, refused to provide any answers as to what humane guidelines, if any, would be enforced.
In advance of the rodeo, the National High School Rodeo Association tried to put up a good front. The State Journal-Register, an NHSFR sponsor, published glowing accounts of the rodeo’s love and respect for its “animal athletes.” Dr. John O’Keefe, NHSFR Veterinary Committee Co-Chair, responding to concerns from animal protectors about the use of the electric prod, was quoted in the July 20, 2006 edition of the State Journal-Register newspaper promising, “You won’t find a (shock) prod on a show or rodeo floor.” Almost from the moment the first performance started on the morning of July 24, 2006 the truth was glaringly different from the propaganda.
- The electric prod was in use against any horse that didn’t want to buck and even on "cooperating" horses and bulls.
- Rodeo hands surreptiously fashioned wire-pronged devices and repeatedly stabbed bulls as the chutes opened.
- Many animals were visibly injured, despite blatant denials by the NHRSA.
- SHARK investigators witnessed and video documented many violations of the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act.
SHARK president Steve Hindi began sending E-mails to Department of Agriculture veterinarian Colleen O’Keefe, alerting her to the cruelty SHARK was documenting. O’Keefe ignored Hindi’s concerns, stating the following in one E-mail:
“The Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare has had field staff at each performance. They have had access to all areas of the ring and there have been no observed violations of the Humane Care for Animals Act. All actions by the rodeo contractor staff have been within normal livestock handling practices.“
So how could Dr. O’Keefe and her associates, having access in key areas of the rodeo, completely miss any of the cruelty that occurred? How could anyone be so completely incompetent? The answer is that while personnel in the Illinois Department of Agriculture are rarely accused of being rocket scientists, this was not a case of blindness, but rather, corruption.
The Department of Agriculture was responsible for producing the rodeo, and it was the head cheerleader for the event at the behest of Governor Rod Blagojevich. As stated earlier in this report, Agriculture Director Charles Hartke and an entourage personally delivered a $55,000 check to the NHSRA at a rodeo in Wyoming. That is personal service to the nth degree!
In fact, there was an apparently an extra effort to make certain that there were no problems between the rodeo and its minion the Ag. Dept. You will recall that earlier in this report we mentioned an NHSFR lead rodeo veterinarian by the name of John O’Keefe, and the Ag. Department veterinarian in charge of Animal Welfare named Colleen O’Keefe. As it turns out, John and Colleen and brother and sister! Isn’t that special?
It is a little difficult to believe that sister Colleen would be very willing to bust the rodeo when brother John is not only the veterinarian, but also the Co-Chair of the very-special-sounding Veterinary Committee. It’s called a conflict of interest, and it is the kind of thing that an ethical venture would never tolerate.
After all, with both O’Keefes being local Springfield veterinarians, it isn’t as if no one knew that there was a family relationship. The conflict of interest in the case of the two O’Keefes is indicative of the carefully choreographed conspiracy between the criminal cruelty of the NHSRA and the cover given by the very agency that was supposed to enforce humane laws – the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
For the rest of the 2006 NHSFR – one week that included thirteen performances –SHARK documented cruelty and criminal animal abuse. At the conclusion of the rodeo finals, SHARK had hours of documented abuse. On the other hand, the Illinois Department of Agriculture claimed that there were absolutely no humane problems.
Following the 2006 NHSRAF, SHARK released video footage and still pictures documenting the shocking, stabbing and tail twisting, tail pulling and tail raking at the event. Hartke's Department denied all of SHARK's allegations, regardless of the fact that they were clearly and extensively documented.
Bruce Rushton, an investigative reporter for the Springfield's State Journal-Register newspaper, dug into the story, uncovering a cesspool of corruption including denials by both the state and the rodeo people about abuses that were documented by still pictures and video. Moreover, the pictures and video images were already available for everyone to view on SHARK's website! But if there is one thing the rodeo has proven it is capable of, it is denying even the most well-documented charges of abuse.
Rushton began a series of articles that cornered the Department and the rodeo. The Department finally announced that it would conduct an investigation into the accusations against the rodeo, thus buying itself a little breathing space. Unfortunately, it was merely a ploy by the Department in order to find a way out of its public relations mess WITHOUT disturbing its incestuous relationship with the Rodeo Mafia.
The Department wasted eight months and God only knows how much tax money pretending to conduct and investigation. Armed with audio recorders, Department investigators personally met with and extensively questioned SHARK investigators about their filming of rodeo abuses. Interestingly, the Department deemed phone interviews to be sufficient with rodeo personnel, and those interviews were NOT recorded.
The climax of the Department's eight-month "investigation" was a report of the obvious -- that everything SHARK had videotaped had happened. That was hardly a surprise, although NHSRA Executive Director Kent Sturman would continue to deny (as he had done in 2000 and 2001) that anything untoward had happened. What was a surprise was that the Department had conveniently "forgotten" to identify the suspects in the case. And, of course, this "just happened" to make it impossible for the Sangamon County State's Attorney to press charges, as one needs suspects to form a prosecution.
SHARK would be the first to charge incompetence in the disastrously botched "investigation" were that
warranted, but that simply isn't the case. As previously mentioned, the Department is charged with enforcing the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act. In that capacity, Department personnel are required to know the law, and furthermore, they instruct volunteer humane investigators throughout the state on how to conduct investigations into possible humane infractions. SHARK president Steve Hindi, an Illinois Approved Humane Investigator, has attended those sessions. Of course, one of the primary components of such an investigation is the identity of the offender(s).
The lack of identities of those who committed dozens of documented violations of the Illinois Humane
Care for Animals Act at the 2006 NHSRAF was not the result of incompetence, but rather, a planned and executed case of conspiracy and corruption.Learn more about this here.
Given the Department's overt act of corruption in protecting the criminally cruel rodeo people at the 2006 NHSRAF, and prior to the 2007 NHSRAF, SHARK obtained, over the loud protestations of the lawyer for the rodeo producer, a court order banning the electrocution or stabbing of animals, and banning of tail twisting at the 2007 NHSRAF.
With a court order in place, the rodeo was extremely limited in how it could abuse its animal victims. The animals, especially the horses, very quickly picked up on the fact that, for whatever reason, they were not being shocked, and the began stalling in the chutes, meaning that they refused to buck.
One horse after another refused to buck, and the rodeo people were reduced to attempting to pull horses out of the chutes by human and even horsepower. The rodeo announcers became so flustered as they searched for excuses that they began losing control of the English language.
The 2007 NHS Rodeo Finals finished with little local interest and quietly left. In its aftermath are dozens of video clips of rodeo animal abuse attesting to the collusion between the Rodeo Mafia and the State of Illinois.
As the images make their way to the Internet via SHARK's web sites and sites such as YouTube and MySpace, the memory of this corruption will exist long after whatever pay-offs and ill-gotten gains between state sellouts and the rodeo animal abusers are spent and forgotten.
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