How Tough (or Truthful) are Rodeo People?
The 2002 Olympics Winter Games, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Former Cultural Olympiad Director Ray Grant
Lies, corruption, and rodeo animal abuse just seem to go hand in hand, and this was evident when the 2002 Winter Olympics included a rodeo as part of its “Cultural Olympiad.” In media interviews, Cultural Olympiad Director Ray Grant attempted to defend the Olympic rodeo by claiming that it was supported by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The following is a direct quote from Grant when he was interviewed on Salt Lake television news Channel 5:
Ray Grant: “It (the Olympic rodeo) has the full support of the Veterinary Medical Association and there are very, very strict guidelines regarding the humane treatment of animals and we’re going to adhere to those very strict guidelines.”
Salt Lake Organizing Committee head Mitt Romney (now the governor of Massachusetts) made similar statements, all of which were absolutely false.
SHARK informed the AVMA about Grant's and Romney’s statements. In response, AVMA spokesperson Dr. Gail Golab publicly declared that there was absolutely no connection between the AMVA and the Olympic rodeo, and that the AVMA, in fact, has no standards regarding the treatment of rodeo animals.
Neither Grant nor Romney ever retracted or apologized for their false statements.
Grant later went on to tell the same television station (Channel 5 in Salt Lake City) that:
“Tail pulling under the rules that we’ve established, immediate disqualifies a candidate from the rodeo.”
It was another lie. A SHARK investigator smuggled a video camera into the Olympic rodeo the very first night. Before she was discovered and ejected, the investigator filmed multiple incidents of tail pulling. There were no disqualifications. In fact, one of the tail pulling incidents involved Rope Myers (yes, that really is his name), the contestant who won the steer riding event! Click here to see some of the tail pulling that Olympic officials promised would not happen.
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