March 22, 2007

To the Editor:

My name is Steve Hindi, and I am the president and founder of Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK). SHARK specializes in investigating and documenting animal abuse issues. Most documentation is by videocam, although we also use still cameras. Rodeos, and the animals abused by the rodeo industry, are currently the number one focus of SHARK.

I have read the Cover Story in your March 2007 magazine edition of The Horse titled: National Finals Rodeo: Rodeo Does Vegas. (Full article can be read online HERE.) In this article you promise to, “...ask some tough questions about welfare.” I only wish you had followed through. Instead, your article glorifies rodeo animal abuse, and accepts and parrots baseless rodeo propaganda, in some cases verbatim from the PRCA’s propaganda bible deceptively titled “Animal Welfare – The care and treatment of professional rodeo livestock.”

Immediately following your promise to “...ask some tough questions about welfare,” you state:

“Statistics have shown throughout the years that the injury rate of a rodeo animal (horses, bulls, calves, steers) is 0.00004%.”

Ms. Brown, this is a baseless claim that lacks any credibility whatsoever. I challenge you to back it up with individual PRCA animal injury reports for each animal injured at each PRCA rodeo for the past few years. That is what any legitimate organization would disseminate, and what any legitimate journalist would demand. Identify which animals were injured at which rodeos, give the dates of the injuries and the final disposition of the victims. Given the supposed rarity of rodeo animal injuries, this information should be extremely easy to provide.

In fact, the PRCA has never and will never release that information for two reasons. First, if the PRCA lies (as it constantly does) about animal injuries at a rodeo where an animal protection organization like SHARK has documentation, the rodeo lies will be exposed. Second, if the PRCA told the truth about how many animals were actually injured and killed in rodeos, the public would be shocked and outraged. This would result in the loss of corporate sponsors and government handouts, and the rodeo industry is addicted to that money since the rodeo industry doesn’t draw enough spectators to pay its own way.

A recent Gallup poll exposes that, contrary to rodeo claims of being a major “sport”, it doesn’t even show up on the American radar of popular sports. You can find the Gallup poll exposing the lack of interest in rodeos at: Gallup Poll Exposes Rodeo Propaganda. More information on the rodeo’s status as a welfare recipient can be found at www.RodeoWelfare.com and www.CorporateThugs.com.

I was at a PRCA rodeo in Lake County, Illinois where a steer was killed, and the stock contractor brought out another animal claiming it was the victim who was in fact, dead. Even when an insider finally exposed them, the rodeo people wouldn’t admit the truth, and the PRCA backed up the lying stock contractor. That story can be found in print on our website at in our “History via the Media” section.

By the way, that rodeo – the Lake County Fraternal Order of Police rodeo – no longer exists.

That is not the only story of deceased PRCA animal victims temporarily returning from the great beyond (via a different animal) for propaganda purposes. Many, many times I have seen animals seriously injured, and the rodeo announcers have assured everyone that the animal is fine. This is standard in the rodeo industry. The rodeo announcer is the front line cover-up person for the rodeo, followed up by duplicitous rodeo veterinarians and of course the PRCA’s “humane coordinator,” which is the rodeo industry’s title for a spin doctor.

If you cannot back up the PRCA’s claim of its incredibly low animal injury rate with actual injury reports and hard facts – and you most certainly cannot – then please demonstrate some dignity and journalistic ethics by retracting your statement.

You go on to state that:
“Keep in mind these statistics are for rodeos sanctioned by the PRCA, which has strict animal welfare rules for rough stock (bucking horses and bulls, steers, and calves) and participants' horses.”

More nonsense. SHARK has been investigating and documenting rodeos since 1993, including the PRCA, IPRA, NHSRA and PBR, as well as smaller associations and unsanctioned rodeos. In all cases, and especially in the case of the PRCA, so-called “animal welfare rules” exist for public relations purposes only. We have submitted video documentation of clear humane violations many times to the PRCA. Nevertheless, we continue to document more of the same violations, and some are by the same people year after year. (Some of that video documentation is to be found at www.TheCruelTruth.com.)

This explains why the PRCA refuses to disclose the identity of members who are disciplined for violating humane rules – there is no discipline. Any legitimate sport (which rodeo certainly is not) discloses rules violators as a matter of course, along with the discipline handed down. Just a few of the many, many humane violations at PRCA rodeos include animals being shocked with electric prods while in the chutes, calves jerked down, calves dragged, chute fighting animals not being released from chutes, no veterinarian at a PRCA rodeo, etc.

I challenge you to either back up your statement with the names of all PRCA members cited in the past three seasons, and the punishment they received, not just a couple of anecdotal claims. If you can’t do that – and you can’t – please retract your statement.

You go on to state that:
“The PRCA hosts a periodic rodeo industry conference to network on rules and animal welfare issues. The organization says this outreach has resulted in most sanctioning associations adopting and enforcing regulations on care and treatment of animals, although representatives of PRCA say other organizations aren't as strict.”

If this conference isn’t a total sham, why doesn’t it release its findings and advances to the public, other than of course the fact that this is nothing more than a public relations sham. If the PRCA was truly interested in dealing with animal welfare issues, it would do well to invite SHARK investigators to the conference. It doesn’t. These conferences are a joke, like anything the PRCA or the rodeo industry in general does in the area of animal welfare. SHARK regularly video documents violations of the PRCA’s phony humane rules. Time after time over the years we have supplied that video documentation to the PRCA. Never once has there been any indication of discipline handed down. On the contrary, we have documented some of the same violators year after year.

There is absolutely no question about the illegitimacy of the PRCA’s enforcement of its humane rules. The only question is why you are supporting this propaganda?

Your rodeo promotion continues with:
“What you might not know is that bucking stock, for the most part, is bred to be bucking stock, and the industry uses high-tech reproductive techniques for breeding.”

More hype. Regardless of whatever “high-tech reproductive techniques” the PRCA or the rest of the industry wishes to claim, the fact is that rodeo horses buck because of the tools of torment that are used against them. These tools are primarily the flank strap (also known as a buck strap), spurs and the electric prod. This fact was proven in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which passed an ordinance well over a decade ago that did NOT prohibit rodeos. What it did prohibit were rodeos’ tools of torment – the flank strap, spurs and the electric prod. The result? There hasn’t been a rodeo in Pittsburgh since, and as long as that law exists, there won’t be any rodeos in Pittsburgh in the future.

The bucking events can’t be held without the tools of torture. I will be very happy to provide you with as much as footage as you want of horses who stop bucking immediately not when the rider comes off the horse, but rather when the buck strap is released. In fact, when the weight of the rider is removed the horse usually bucks higher and harder in an effort to rid itself of the hated strap. That strap often makes horses “buck blind” right into fences and gates, sometimes incurring injury and even death.

Shouldn’t a horse expert like you already know this? Why are you acting as if this is OK? Would you ever allow someone to get on your dearest horse, shock him/her with 5,000 – 6,000 volts of painful electricity, cinch a buck strap tight around the flank and the spur the daylights out of her for eight seconds? If not, then why are you giving these cruelties your stamp of approval?

And the spin goes on with:
Doug Corey, DVM, the current president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, has a long history of working with equine welfare at rodeos. He is chair of the PRCA Welfare Committee. He has made it a personal crusade to not only improve the welfare of all rodeo animals, but to let the world know that PRCA is proactive in protecting its animal participants.

By all means, let’s talk about Dr. Doug Corey, the PRCA’s favorite mouthpiece. I debated Dr. Corey on live Las Vegas television during the 1997 NFR. Corey was spouting a bunch of nonsensical PRCA rhetoric that sounded a lot like your article reads. I figured that a veterinarian had to know better, so I gave him a good going over simply by telling the truth. Everyone on both sides of the rodeo issue agreed that Corey took a licking. In fact, no PRCA representative has debated a SHARK representative since. That’s how afraid they are of having the truth exposed. (You can view the debate via a link HERE.)

Here are some facts about Dr. Corey that you neglected to mention in your article. Corey is the official veterinarian of the Pendleton Roundup, one of the most brutal rodeos in the world, partly because of its natural grass arena floor. Most rodeo arenas have raked dirt. The natural grass means that the floor is much more slippery for one thing. Whether roping or bucking stock, a lot of the animals go down, especially if they try sharp turns as they try to escape the rope or eject the riders from their backs.

A second, even more dangerous aspect of the Pendleton Roundup is that the natural grass means that the ground is extremely hard. The raked dirt gives a falling animal some degree of cushioning. In order to promote their tough-guy image, the announcers at Pendleton are fond about commenting on how dangerous Pendleton’s natural grass arena is. So dangerous, they say, that many top competitors won’t go there. But then, the animal victims of rodeo don’t have a choice, do they?

Pendleton also includes steer busting, the most brutal and deadly event in rodeo, made even more cruel by way of the natural grass. When a steer gets busted at Pendleton he often doesn’t just slam into the ground, he bounces. When he is getting dragged across the arena floor his horn doesn’t dig a trench through the dirt, his head vibrates from the dragging, like a paint can in a mixing machine. Injuries are predictably even more common and completely needless. It’s all so they can claim to be tougher, and Dr. Doug Corey is Pendleton’s veterinarian.

Also, many horses are shocked into performing at Pendleton. I know this because I was there and filmed it. Have you ever been to Pendleton, Ms. Brown? The shocking of horses not only violates the PRCA’s own supposed humane rules that you tout, but also the guidelines of the Hot-Shot Corporation that manufactures the electric prod. Hot-Shot designed the prod to move hogs and bovines. Hot-Shot executives have repeatedly stated that they don’t want their products used in rodeos, and that the prod should never be used on horses.

You say Corey is on “...a personal crusade to improve the welfare of all rodeo animals”? Outrageous! If Corey had any compassion in him whatsoever, he wouldn’t allow what goes on at Pendleton, but the truth is that Dr. Corey has been allowing it and other rodeo abuses, and profiting from it, for a very long time. Doug Corey chairing the PRCA’s Animal Welfare Committee is as big a joke as employing a “Humane Coordinator” to cover up cases of rodeo animal abuse. Corey’s engineering of an award given to the PRCA by the AAEP demonstrates that each organization has identical ethical standards – none whatsoever.

Your article continues its praise of the PRCA with:
There are more than 60 rules in the PRCA dealing with the care and treatment of animals at rodeos. Anyone who violates these rules can be disqualified from an event by the attending judge, and he can be fined on the spot by that judge, depending on the violation. The judge reports violations to the PRCA headquarters, and that organizing body can also levy fines against the person. Fines double with each offense.

There are not “more than 60 rules”. Prior to Campbell Soup’s dumping of its PRCA sponsorship, the company pressured the PRCA to give SHARK its humane rules, which we had been requesting for over a decade. When we finally received the much-sought-after rules, there were exactly 60. Then we realized that one was listed twice, bringing the number to 59. Apparently the PRCA either can’t count, or figured we wouldn’t notice.

The 59 “rules” are, like so many aspects of the PRCA, a fraud. Many have nothing to do with the humane treatment of animals. Almost all of the rest are both redundant and loaded with loopholes, and as previously stated, are not enforced. SHARK exposes the PRCA’s phony 59 "humane rules" at prcaFACTS.com. Why don’t you check it out, and then we can discuss.

The PRCA’s first “humane rule” is that “No animal shall be treated inhumanely by any Member.” I need only two words to completely discredit this assurance – Steer Busting. Also known as steer tripping or single steer roping. Steer busting injures, maims and kills untold numbers of victims annually.

In fact, it is so violent that other major rodeo associations don’t even allow it. Most states don’t allow it. The PRCA doesn’t even bring it to its National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Why? In an April 2005 edition of the Colorado Springs Independent, Nevada’s state veterinarian David Thain said the event is considered too harmful. “I think you see too many accidents with it–animals getting hurt too often,” Thain said. Your claims about rodeo judges reporting violations to PRCA headquarters are absolutely false. At www.ReportersWhoCare.com you will find an article from the August 6, 2006 edition of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle that clearly demonstrates the impotency of both PRCA judges and PRCA headquarters, with the cause of the impotency being an acute case of carelessness for animal well-being.

We regularly videotape clear violations of PRCA humane rules from hundreds of feet away in the viewing stands. The judges are within spitting distance of the abuses and say nothing. Furthermore, when we have sent video footage to PRCA headquarters, which we have done on many occasions, nothing happens.

That is SHARK’s position. All you have to do to disprove this claim is provide the reports of PRCA judges turning in humane violators for the past three seasons. If you can’t prove that--and you can’t--please have the dignity and decency to retract this claim.

Continuing on with your whitewashing of the PRCA:
One such rule that results in immediate disqualification and fines is unnecessary roughness with animals. This is true in the arena or anywhere on the rodeo grounds with any horses or cattle (bucking stock, livestock, or privately owned horses).

Unnecessary roughness isn’t allowed? Well there goes steer busting, the most dangerous event in rodeo, not to mention calf roping. There also goes those cruel and deadly wild horse races, and the other events that maim and kill those untold number of animals that the PRCA will not disclose. The wild horse race is not a sanctioned PRCA event, but it is held at PRCA rodeos, and many animals are injured and killed. We have the footage, and I want to show it to you. This doesn’t even include the individual acts of cruelty, some of which are at the level of depravity.

Tell you what – let’s pick a time and place where our respective sides can meet and review the very, very extensive video and still picture documentation from SHARK’s library. We’ll need two or three days, but I don’t want to leave any doubt in your mind whatsoever about the veracity of our position. You may feel free to invite the PRCA folks to join us, but I guarantee that they would jump into a vat of boiling cow dung before they would ever agree to see the clear, irrefutable evidence of their brutal cruelty. That’s alright, we’ll do just fine without them.

Continuing with your whitewash:
At the 2006 National Finals, one cowboy in the tie-down roping event (which now fines ropers for jerking the calf off its feet backward), had the calf roped and was getting ready to tie his feet when his horse started backing up and tightening the rope on the calf's neck. The cowboy reached back and pulled a knife from his belt and cut his rope in order to protect the calf. He then finished tying the calf's legs. His time was, of course, not good enough to win him any money that evening, but it was a good display of concern for the livestock.

That’s your evidence? One anecdote? I will bring footage of dozens – no hundreds, of calves being dragged mercilessly, and the contestants were never called for it- in spite of dragging being a violation of the PRCA’s worthless humane rules. Of course, I will be looking forward to the history of fines against calf ropers for jerkdowns along with the other disciplinary history requested for humane violations.

You continue with:
PRCA judges are trained to evaluate livestock and judge the events, and they must undergo constant training and evaluation to "ensure their skills are sharp and that they are enforcing PRCA rules, especially those regarding the care and handling of rodeo livestock," noted by the PRCA in a booklet entitled “Animal Welfare: The care and treatment of professional rodeo livestock”.

This is garbage – nothing more. I have already addressed the issue of impotent judges. Posing as rodeo law enforcers, rodeo judges are among the most spineless crooks I hope I will ever encounter. All the cruelty and brutality that goes on in rodeo goes on in front of them, and they do nothing. Of course, if they did speak out they won’t be rodeo judges anymore. When our sides meet, you’ll see the proof – lots and lots of it that spans over a decade.

The PRCA is proud to have been awarded the 2003 AAEP Lavin Cup in recognition of the organization's contributions to the health and welfare of the horse.

The PRCA was awarded the 2003 AAEP Lavin Cup because the afore-mentioned Dr. Doug Corey is prominent within the organization. In fact, Corey is currently the head of the AAEP. Neither the AAEP nor its parent organization, the AVMA, are dedicated to the improvement of animals, but rather the well-being of it membership that feeds off animals like ticks.

As I stated before, Corey’s engineering of an award given to the PRCA by the AAEP demonstrates that each organization has identical ethical standards – none whatsoever. I will be happy to provide you with the names of veterinarians who speak out about the betrayal of animals by the AAEP and the AVMA, and who are trying to make real, positive change for animals.

The PRCA whitewash continues:

Flank strap

This is not used to make the horse buck, but to encourage the animal to kick higher with its back feet. Corey says the strap won't make a champion bucking horse out of your trail horse. PRCA rules stipulate that the horse flank strap must be lined with sheepskin or Neoprene and have a quick-release fastener. No sharp or cutting objects can be used, and the straps never cover the genitalia or fasten so tightly as to cause pain.

Your statement that the flank strap “...is not used to make the horse buck...” is absolutely false. Our years of video documentation demonstrate that without any doubt whatsoever, the flank strap is the major device that makes the horse buck. Almost all bucking horses stop bucking the moment that the quick-release is engaged, causing the flank strap to fall off the horse. We can give you hours and hours of documentation of this process. Additionally, the flank strap causes horses on occasion to “buck blind,” which causes them to run and buck right into fences and gates, sometimes injuring and even killing them. Again, this is extensively documented, and I am more than happy to show you the footage when our two sides get together, preferably with rodeo people there as well.

Furthermore, when the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania outlawed flanks straps, spurs and electric prods from rodeos over a decade ago, it precluded any more of these abusive spectacles. If the flank strap doesn’t make these animals buck, why didn’t rodeos continue there?

Your “report” continues:

Spurs

A variety of spurs are used in rodeo's equine events, but each is dulled to ensure it doesn't harm the animal. The rowels in the bareback and saddle bronc riding events must roll and not be "locked" in one position. The blunted rowels must be one-eighth of an inch thick.

Being hit repeatedly by a blunt object – in this case spurs – causes blunt trauma. This isn’t rocket science or a medical breakthrough. Ms. Brown, have you ever seen the way that rodeo contestants slam and rake their spurs across their victims? Do you spur your horses that way? Do you suggest that your readers spur their horses that way? If not, why are you condoning this treatment of horses in rodeos?

Large animal veterinarian and former rodeo participant, Dr. Peggy Larson, DVM has written about the effect of spurring bucking horses at the rodeo:
“The spurs cause blunt trauma to the shoulders which again never have time to heal properly before the horse is ridden and spurred in another rodeo.”

Dr. Larson writes much more from the perspective of a veterinarian. You can read her statements on the treatment of animals in rodeos HERE.

Continuing with the charade:

Electric prods

PRCA rules state that these may only be used when necessary, and only on the hip or shoulder of the animal. The prod produces low voltage and virtually no amperage, so it causes a mild shock, but it will not burn the animal. Higher voltage or amperage equipment is not allowed.

In rodeos, the electric prod is used regularly to make tame, domesticated animals act wild. This behavior is a reaction to the pain of a few thousand volts, which I can personally attest will get a rise out of even the most laid back individual, animal or human. Perhaps when we get together you will agree to take a jolt from the prod, or not. If you do you’ll exhibit more guts that those tough-guy rodeo folks. I have taken the prod many times in exhibitions. Some members of the media, including women, have taken it as well. But the rodeo folks – forget it. They apparently just don’t have what it takes. They can dish it out, but that’s where rodeo “manliness” ends. It's really kind of sad, isn’t it?

Continuing:

Oversight
The PRCA requires a veterinarian to be on-site at all sanctioned rodeos. The group also has a full-time animal welfare coordinator to oversee internal and public educational programs. The PRCA's Animal Welfare Committee meets regularly to discuss issues, review rules, and make recommendations to the PRCA Board of Directors. Any questions about welfare of rodeo horses can be sent to: PRCA Animal Welfare, PRCA, 101 Pro Rodeo Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80919; animalwelfare@prorodeo.com.

Ah yes, the much and highly touted PRCA vet rule. Ms. Brown, as you must know, hiring a veterinarian to monitor a rodeo would likely cost in the area of $500 - $1000 dollars, maybe more. Do you know what the fine is for violating this rule? $200! Knowing that the fine is considerably less than the cost of following the rule, just how effective do you think that it is? This is shameful! Beside that, anyone who would turn the stock contractor in for violating the rule would find themselves out of the rodeo business, rendering the law even more ineffective.

Furthermore, as an Illinois Approved Humane Investigator, I recently requested the identity of the veterinarian at a PRCA rodeo held at the 2006 Illinois State Fair. Neither the stock contractor nor PRCA headquarters will supply me with that information. Does that tell you anything, Ms. Brown?

As for the “animal welfare coordinator,” this sham alone exposes the PRCA as an organization of liars and charlatans. The “animal welfare coordinator is nothing more than a third-rate spin doctor. For you to tout this fake as an individual who has any purpose whatsoever is to completely destroy your own credibility.

Going on:

Bred to Buck

In the early days of rodeo, bucking horses were rogues that hated people and refused to be ridden. Today there are specific breeding programs so that top rodeo horses are literally "bred to buck."

Ridiculous. The rodeo people have historically claimed that they give “bad horses” a new lease on life in the rodeo. Now they turn around and claim that they are breeding them to buck. Neither is true. In any case, if the horses want to buck so much, then why the flank straps, spurs and electric prods? Come on, Ms. Brown – you can’t be falling for such simplistic rodeo rhetoric.

Going on:

Sankey says out of the horses he raises, only about 5% don't work in the rodeo. While it's not the first option, he says some of those 5% do wind up at slaughter.

Hence, the rodeos’ objection to the horse slaughter ban demanded by the vast majority of good, caring Americans.

Finally, Ms. Brown, one piece of useful information emerges from your article – the fact that the rodeo helps supply the horse slaughter industry – and I commend you for having the courage to write something with a degree of accuracy. What you didn’t write about is the fact that the rodeo’s never-ending supply of used up and broken down horses also end up at slaughter. Why should the rodeo spend money to humanely euthanize a horse when it can instead make more money off the terror and cruelty of slaughter? Of course, how many rodeo horses go to slaughter will never be known if the PRCA has anything to say about it, as the disposition of their victims if one of the most closely guarded secrets in the industry.

Finally you write:

Take-Home Message

Rodeo can elicit strong emotions in those who participate and watch the supposed “sport”. While livestock used in competitions hasn't always had the best care, and often was considered disposable in the early days, modern events--especially those sanctioned by the PRCA--are fair matches of man and beast, where the horses often are the heroes.

A final, repulsive piece of kissing up. I certainly hope the rodeo people have rewarded you well for your efforts, for you own credibility is destroyed, and you have done the animal victims of rodeo, including the horses for whom you should advocate, a profound disservice.

You promised to “...ask some tough questions about welfare,” but you never even came close. The only thing we don’t know is whether you rolled over for these animal abusers out of extraordinary ignorance, or by design. Frankly, it looks like you’re bucking (no pun intended) to become the next PRCA “animal welfare coordinator.”

If you simply bought into the propaganda nonsense of the PRCA, this is your opportunity to set the record straight, and I hope that this is what you will do. Anyone can make a mistake. What I find intolerable is the deliberate obfuscation of facts with an agenda that leaves our nonhuman friends to be continually victimized by cruel and cowardly thugs who profit at their expense. Please demonstrate that you a genuine journalist and not a traitor of horses and other animals. I’ll even do your job for you by supplying the tough questions you promised too, should have, but didn’t ask:

1. Why doesn’t the PRCA keep a public record of all animal injuries, including specific information identifying each animal, the date and location of the rodeo wherein the injury occurred, and the disposition of the animal?

2. Why doesn’t the PRCA keep a public record of all judges’ reports with regard to humane violations, including the identity of accused violators, the nature of the violation, the status of any ongoing hearing process, and the final disposition of the case?

3. Why doesn’t the PRCA keep a public record of all members’ records with regard to humane violations?

4. What (hard) evidence is there that video and still picture documentation supplied by outside sources, such as animal protection organizations, is acted upon?

5. Why is it that PRCA stock contractors are caught committing the same violations repeatedly even after the PRCA has received video documentation of those violations. These violators include some of the most well-known PRCA stock contractors, such as Harry Vold, Cotton Rosser, David Bailey, Steven Gander (who may or may not be with the PRCA at this time), David Morehead, John Barnes and many others.

6. Why does the PRCA maintain a position within its ranks called a “humane coordinator,” whose job is NOT to promote the humane treatment of rodeo animals, but rather to cover up incidents of cruelty and PRCA humane violations?

I challenge you to respond to this letter, either with hard information to back up all of the baseless claims you have made on behalf of the rodeo industry, or admit that your article was nothing but a propaganda fluff piece.

Sincerely,

Steve Hindi, President
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness