“Please, Note there is a video at the end of this post. however it is very graphic”
According to the Idaho Statesman, Idaho has been ordered to pay nearly $250,000 in legal fees for a case, that could have been avoided.
In 2012, Mercy For Animals released findings of an undercover investigation at Bettencourt Dairies in Hansen, Idaho, where workers were exposed stomping, beating, dragging, and otherwise torturing the cows.
In response to the investigation, the Idaho Dairymen’s Association drafted and sponsored anag-gag bill, which was passed by the Idaho legislature and signed by Governor Otter in February 2014. This law created a new crime: “interference with agricultural production.” It essentially criminalized undercover investigations on factory farms.
The effect of the statute will be to suppress speech by undercover investigators and whistleblowers concerning topics of great public importance: the safety of the public food supply, the safety of agricultural workers, the treatment and health of farm animals, and the impact of business activities on the environment.
The coalition of nonprofit groups that challenged the law has now been awarded$249,875.08 in legal fees. Clearly ag-gag laws are not only unconstitutional, but a huge waste of taxpayer resources. Idaho is now appealing the court ruling, which will result in an even greater waste of taxpayer money.
The governor and lawmakers of Idaho should be ashamed. They clearly don’t value their hard working constituents and will accept money from big corporations at the taxpayers’ expense.
We urge Idaho lawmakers to focus their efforts on improving animal welfare and rewarding the brave whistleblowers who uncover criminal activity in the state’s agricultural operations.
This ruling should also be a wake-up call to the meat, dairy, and egg industries that attempt to keep consumers in the dark about where their food comes from will not be tolerated.
VERY GRAPHIC – This is just one of Mercy For Animals Video’s taken in an Ohio Dairy Farm (not the video in question)
Uploaded on 25 May 2010
Hidden camera video secretly shot by an investigator with Mercy For Animals at an Ohio dairy farm reveals shocking, malicious cruelty to calves and cows. The video, recorded between April and May, 2010, shows dairy farm workers beating cows in the face with crowbars, stabbing them with pitchforks, breaking their tails, and punching, throwing, and kicking calves.
When meat is imported into the European Union the law stipulates that the animal must have been slaughtered in line with EU legislation.
However, when EU animals are exported, the same rules are not afforded to them and instead they can face brutal treatment and long drawn out slaughter.
Every year three million Europeananimals are sent on long, stressful journeys to be fattened or slaughtered outside the EU. A vast number of these go to the Middle East where Compassion’s recent investigation, in partnership with Animals Australia, has uncovered immeasurable suffering.
Please take a moment to watch the film and slideshow below to find out more about this deplorable trade. Be warned; some of the film is distressing to watch, but it’s essential concerned citizens find out where European animals are ending their journeys.
Take action against the EU’s cruel live animal export trade
Published on 27 Feb 2014
Every year three million European animals are sent on long, stressful journeys to be fattened or slaughtered outside the EU. A vast number of these go to the Middle East where Compassion’s recent investigation, in partnership with Animals Australia, has uncovered immeasurable suffering.
Please take a moment to watch the film and find out more about this deplorable trade. Be warned, some of the film is distressing to watch, but it’s essential that concerned citizens find out where European animals are ending their journeys.
Please take a moment to watch and share our investigation. Warning: Due to its upsetting nature, you may need to verify that you are over 18 to watch the film.
When European farm animals are exported to non-EU countries every shred of protection they once received in their place of birth is rendered meaningless.
After enduring long, exhausting journeys by land and sea they may face terrifying ordeals at slaughter.
Animals are dragged by their limbs, bound up with ropes, pinned down by groups of men, beaten with metal rods, suspended upside down for extended periods of time, and eventually slaughtered in unacceptable ways that leave them conscious for many minutes after having their throats cut.
The European Commission has the power to take steps to stop this, but as each day passes without action more and more animals continue to suffer.
The European Commission must work towards ending the live export trade and if necessary replacing it with a trade in meat.
While a trade in exporting live animals continues, the European Commission must implement a scheme that will guarantee exported animals are treated in ways that prevent the worst of the suffering.
The European Commission must provide practical support to countries that import live animals from the EU in order that they can improve transport, handling and slaughter methods. This will not only improve the welfare of EU animals but also of any other animals slaughtered in those countries.
Please take action today. Email the Commission and call for an end to this suffering.
“Please sign this petition, We have to keep the public updated on animal welfare issues. But with the AG- Gag Laws trying to be introduced to protect those who are blatantly flaunting the law; it’s hard to know what or where to turn to next. Please sign the petition here or further down.”
“We have to be the voice of the voiceless & ensure laws put in place to protect them; are in use!”
“YOU The PUBLIC have a voice, if you eat meat, don’t you want it to come from healthy farms, where the animals are cared for as they should be.? There are no excuses as you can see in the second video…but farmers cut corners to produce meat cheaply…would you honestly want to eat the meat that came from ill, diseased or filthy animals fed with slop??”
“Every time you open the door to one of these farms, you tell yourself: ‘it will be better than the last. They can’t all be ignoring the law, they can’t all be inflicting such misery.’ But then you see the pigs, and realise the scale of the suffering. It breaks your heart.”
Compassion’s Head of Investigations.
We have created a short video to summarise the findings of our investigation. Please help us to protect the pigs by watching it and sharing it as widely as possible.
The biggest scandal in modern pig farming?
Published on 23 Oct 2013
Much of the EU pig industry is completely ignoring basic welfare laws — leading to the suffering of millions of pigs. Compassion in World Farming has pulled together evidence from across Europe — join us in standing up for pig welfare by signing the petition: http://www.ciwf.org/EUpigvideo
Last year Compassion visited 45 pig farms across the EU. We went south to Italy and Spain; south-east to Cyprus; west to Ireland; and east to Poland and the Czech Republic. On every single farm we found the laws put in place to protect pig welfare were being flouted – the suffering was hard to witness.
And it doesn’t stop there.
We believe aspects of the Pigs Directive are being blatantly ignored all across the EU, inflicting illegal cruelty on millions of intelligent and sensitive animals. There are over 140 million pigs in the EU at any one time. Sometimes the scale of the challenge we are facing seems overwhelming.
But we have good news. The response to our petition has been amazing. It is the fastest growing petition in Compassion’s history; please help us keep up the momentum.
Humane, sustainable dairy farming can and does exist in California! In this film, Philip visits Strauss dairy whose organic dairy herd graze on pasture and are treated as much more than just units of production.
Over a three-year period Philip Lymbery (CEO of Compassion in World Farming) has travelled the world bearing witness to the hidden cost of cheap meat and the devastating impact of factory farming — on people, animals and our planet.
The findings of this journey are brought together for the very first time in Farmageddon (published by Bloomsbury).
“Please sign the petition to give better protection to EULivestock being exported abroad; as soon as they leave the EU they are no longer protected… we must change this; by being their voice!
I believe All animals deserve the 5 freedom act throughout their entire life; which they ultimately give to humans for food…the following is the very least we can do for them; whilst they are alive:-
freedom from hunger and thirst
freedom from discomfort (shelter from heat and rain)
freedom from pain, injury and disease
freedom to express normal behaviour (without inconveniencing or harming others)
freedom from fear and distress.
Scientific research is constantly revealing new evidence of animals’ intelligence and emotions. This interest is reflected in burgeoning numbers of journals, books and reports. Professor Marian Dawkins of the Oxford University has called the study of animal sentience “one of the most exciting and the most important in the whole of biology.”
There is now evidence that many animals can learn new skills and some appear to show emotions similar to human empathy. They can also be reduced to a state resembling human depression by chronic stress or confinement in a cage. This new understanding of the sentience of animals has huge implications for the way we treat them and the policies and laws we adopt. Read More about sentient beings:-Http://www.ciwf.org.uk/animal_sentience/default.aspx
Three million animals a year are exported live from the EU to non-EU countries. As soon as they leave European Union borders they are no longer protected by European law. They’re on their own out there.
At the end of 2013 we released evidence showing appalling cruelty to European animals at a slaughterhouse in Beirut. Now, Compassion’s Investigation Unit, in partnership with Animals Australia, has also documented brutal handling at abattoirs and on the streets in Jordan, Turkey and the West Bank.
The handling and slaughter these animals can face is nothing short of horrendous. But it shouldn’t be that way. All of the countries we visited have signed up as members of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and in doing so have signed up to a code of recommendations on the slaughter of livestock.Yet, everywhere we visited we saw multiple breaches of even the most basic OIE recommendations.
In slaughterhouses we filmed staff moving animals into place by dragging them by the tail, legs, fleece and even by the eye sockets.Some animals were strung up with chains; their whole body weight on one leg. Others were restrained in mechanical boxes that flipped them completely upside down and then dropped them onto the bodies of other dying animals.
When animals don’t end up in slaughterhouses, they face death on the streets – an even more brutal and unregulated ending.
We found animals being pulled out of the backs of trucks without ramps, bound by the feet, tripped over with ropes, contorted into position and then tied to the ground or pinned down by large groups of people before being slaughtered. Often, when it came to slaughter the knives used were blunt and ineffective and animals remained conscious for many minutes after having their throats cut.
What’s the solution? Much of the suffering we witnessed could easily be stopped with just basic and inexpensive changes to slaughterhouses and staff training.
Ultimately, Compassion wants an end to all long-distance transport of farm animals. But the cruel trade in animals from the EU is vast and will take time to crack. As an interim measure, we’re therefore calling for action to ensure that exported European animals are slaughtered to at least the standards recommended by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
EU Member States that wish to export animals outside of the EU should be providing practical support to improve the standards of slaughter in importing countries.
Supporting improvements to slaughter in this way will of course not only help any European animals that end up in non-EU countries.It would also reduce the suffering of all animals facing slaughter in those countries.
Please watch our exposé today and then take action by filling out the form to the right to email the Agriculture Ministers of the EUs biggest exporters of live animals.
Viewer Discretion Advised – The Fate of Exported European Animals
Published on 19 Feb 2014
The contents of this video are graphic and will be distressing – please take action here:http://goo.gl/5MbYoR
What happens when European animals are exported live beyond the borders of the EU?
Compassion in World Farming‘s Investigation Unit, in partnership with Animals Australia, investigated the trade and documented brutal handling at abattoirs and on the streets in Jordan, Turkey and the West Bank.
“Those who secretly film the atrocious acts of violence are not terrorist; they merely want the PUBLIC to know the truth about the lives of the animals you eat & how they are treated. Imagine how it feels for them? animal lovers, having to watch the abuse happening all around them…to enable the public to see the truth. I think they deserve a bloody medal; for keeping their hands off the MF’ing bxxxxxxd’s committing such horrifying acts !!
YOU the meat-eating public, have the right to know the animals you eat have been treated with respect; before going to slaughter!! AG- GAG laws were introduced to protect those allowing the cruelty to continue to their animals, & protect those who commit the crimes; what happened to freedom of speech??? They don’t want you, the paying pubic to know the heinous acts of cruelty that go on behind their closed doors; because they know they are likely to lose business !!.
NO ANIMAL meant for human consumption should be treated worse than shit on shoes; they are sentient beings more than capable of feeling the pain of every blow, kick, punch etc. They give their lives for you…please don’t let them suffer in silence! AG-GAG Laws were introduced to stop the public knowing the truth…the animals have the right to dignity & the public have the right to know how they are being treated!Please, sign the petition at http://www.walmartcruelty.com/ scroll to the bottom half to sign”
“Watch the videos below. if you can stomach them, is it fair for animals to be treated this way? YOU have the power to help stop this; please use it & stop AG-Gag Laws!!”
Posted: Sunday, February 23, By Randy Stapilus
Backers of the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation anti-videoing legislation — “ag-gag” — have already lost the war, even if the legislation passes. Especially if it passes.
Their best hope is to change strategy.
Senate Bill 1337, which has passed the Senate, bars a person who “without the facility owner’s express consent or pursuant to judicial process or statutory authorization, makes audio or video recordings of the conduct of an agricultural production facility’s operations.” More specifically, it’s intended to ban (though various existing laws already theoretically do) the videotaping of what happens to livestock in concentrated animal feeding operations.
This is significant in Idaho, home to some very large CAFO operations in the Magic Valley and southwest. The new bill would punish violators with up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine; critics note that’s the same as the state penalty for animal abuse.
Similar legislation has been proposed, most often failing to pass, in more than a dozen states; a Utah law is being challenged in the courts.
The Idaho bill was specifically prompted by a video shot in 2012 at Bettencourt Dairy at Hansen, showing workers beating on livestock. Last week another video shot at an Idaho CAFO, which added animal sexual abuse to the mix, was released. Both have had many, many views, and they’ve gone viral on social media.
We can’t know if the videos alone would have generated massive international attention. We do know the videos, combined with legislation to ban shooting more of them, has sent interest in the subject sky high in news reports nationally and overseas.
The story is irresistible: An attempt to keep the lid on what people have already seen. But memories aren’t so easily erased. Nor is the technology, which keeps moving in the direction of disclosure, as privacy advocates regularly remind us.
Among other responses to the bill are petitions — some inside Idaho, some by national animal advocacy groups. Petitions usually do little by themselves, but they can assist organization efforts, and they keep the subject visible.
Not only are smaller and relatively hard-core groups like Mercy for Animals, which released the Bettencourt videos, involved in this, but also larger and better-funded groups like the Humane Society of the United States. The subject of CAFO livestock has gone mainstream.
If you doubt that, watch the latest series offering from Netflix: The satirical but pointed “Farmed and Dangerous.” The initial plot hook involves an exploding cow. Once issues like this get into cultural discussion, national regulation and legislation may, in time, follow. It’s in the spotlight now.
The Magic Valley has benefited recently from arrival of a number of food processors who came there largely because of the easy supply of dairy products. Don’t be surprised if boycotts of some of them start — and lead to business responses. To see this playing out, Google the Wiese Brothers Farms in Wisconsin and read about the videos and other reports that led a frozen pizza company to cut all ties with them.
Nor is that all. If SB 1337 is signed into law (as seems likely), watch for this: An activist who deliberately violates it, shooting more video, intending to get caught, and insisting on a very public trial that could draw more national and international attention, kicking in the cycle all over again.
The problem for livestock operations is not insoluble. The simplest out is to improve and closely monitor operations, then throw open the doors for public viewing.
Some CAFO advocates have argued that much of what has been shown on the videos has been unusual aberrations, that most livestock is treated better before slaughter than the videos suggest. An open-door policy would be the one practical way to prove it.
Some of what inevitably happens in the best of meat processing businesses is of course difficult for many people to stomach, but the operators could fairly argue that if you want your meat at the supermarket, this is how it has to get there. Since most people do want their steaks and burgers, the argument might settle down, on at least higher ground than it occupies now.
Legislation has its uses. But CAFOs here have among other things a public relations problem, and these kinds of laws seldom are much help with that.
* Randy Stapilus is a former Idaho newspaper reporter and editor, author of The Idaho Political Field Guide, edits the Idaho Weekly Briefing, and blogs at www.ridenbaugh.com. He can be reached at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com.
A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals shocking cruelty to animals at Walmart pork suppliers. Workers hit, throw, and drop mother pigs and their baby piglets. Learn more and take action at http://www.WalmartCruelty.com
The video below is just a reminder of how animals are treated, without undercover investigations the public wouldn’t have a clue about the atrocities that happened at this farm!
Hidden camera video secretly shot by an investigator with Mercy For Animals at an Ohio dairy farm reveals shocking, malicious cruelty to calves and cows. The video, recorded between April and May, 2010, shows dairy farm workers beating cows in the face with crowbars, stabbing them with pitchforks, breaking their tails, and punching, throwing, and kicking calves.
” This heinous cruelty & horrific torture must be stopped; no animal should be treated this way. They are sentient beings capable of feelings just like humans! Do meat eaters really want to eat meat from animals that have been appallingly abused! The public have a right to know how the animals they intend to eat, are treated!
Those farms hoping to get Ag-Gag laws are doing so; because they don’t want the public to learn the truth, about the horrific violence & abuse used on their animals; once the public learn of this, they will think twice about buying their products. The people have the power to stop this by raising their voices & demanding better conditions for these poor neglected, abused & heinously treated animals; please use your voice to end this!! Please sign the petition below or at http://www.sliceofcruelty.com/
February 13, 2014 – By Matt Rice
Four workers at a dairy farm that was supplying cheese to DiGiorno Pizza are being charged with a total of 11 counts of criminal animal cruelty. Each count is punishable by up to nine months in jail and $10,000 in fines.
The charges stem from shocking animal abuse captured on a hidden-camera videoby Mercy For Animals at a Wisconsin dairy farm late last year. Abelardo Jaimes, Crescencio Pineda, Lucia Martinez, and Misael Monge-Minerowere charged with violating the state’s animal cruelty statute after they were caught on video viciously kicking, beating, whipping, dragging and stabbing cows at Wiese Brothers Farms in Greenleaf, Wisconsin.
MFA praises the Brown County Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office for taking swift and decisive action in pursuing justice for these abused and exploited animals.
Mercy For Animals is calling on Nestlé to adopt meaningful animal welfare guidelines, including zero tolerance for kicking, punching and shocking cows; requiring suppliers to prohibit painful and unnecessary mutilations of animals; and requiring suppliers to provide a safe, clean and sanitary environment for cattle. Tens of thousands of consumers have signed a petition at SliceOfCruelty.com, urging Nestlé to implement such policies, since the investigation’s release.
“These criminal charges should be a wake-up call that heartbreaking animal abuse runs rampant at DiGiorno cheese suppliers. Swift action must be taken to end this unspeakable cruelty. Nestlé has the power and responsibility to implement meaningful policies to end some of the worst forms of animal abuse in the dairy industry,” said MFA’s executive director, Nathan Runkle. “No socially responsible corporation should support dairy operations that torture animals.”
Please take action now to stop this type of blatant animal abuse by signing the petition at SliceOfCruelty.com.
After signing the petition, consider making changes in your own lifestyle to help animals by transitioning to a healthy and humane vegan diet. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.
Watch the shocking hidden-camera video that led to the charges here:
Viewer Discretion Advised – WATCH: Cows Kicked, Stabbed and Dragged at DiGiorno Pizza Cheese Supplier (Please note, these are sentient beings, capable of feeling every strike, punch or kick) should animals be treated like this; just because they are going to be slaughtered? THE ANSWER IS NO!!
Published on 10 Dec 2013
Horrific undercover video taken by a Mercy For Animals investigator reveals disgusting animal cruelty at a DiGiorno dairy supplier. Workers kick, beat, and stab cows and drag them by their fragile legs and necks using chains attached to tractors.
“The video captures workers engaged in numerous serious acts of direct physical abuse and overt brutality—they whip, beat, slap, kick, stab and yell profanity at the cows. … There is a culture of serious neglect and mistreatment of animals in this facility, and the animals are suffering. This must stop.”
Dr. Debra Teachout
“There is no question in my mind, as a veterinarian experienced with farmed animals, including cows, that much of what was being done to the cows was inhumane, brutal and almost certainly a violation of the anti-cruelty statutes of many if not all states.”
Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci
“Dragging live cows, and completely suspending them with the cow lift is severe animal abuse. The actions of these people went beyond rough handling and escalated to the level of cruelty. Kicking, beating, and hard whipping of downed cows is abusive.”
Dr. Temple Grandin
“It is abuse to beat, kick or whip an animal that cannot get up. Hitting an animal in the face is particularly painful. The fact that cows in other scenes are beaten or kicked in the head and face demonstrates the workers have either learned or have been trained that this bothers the animals more than hitting them on other areas of their bodies.”
By Dr. James Reynolds
“Workers were observed to hit, kick and whip downer cows on multiple occasions. Cows were hit in their cervical (neck), thoracic, lumbar, and head regions using hands, ropes, and a thin plastic pipe. All of these actions would have unnecessary and unjustifiable pain and suffering.”
“And people ask me why I don’t eat meat…its not just the abuse they suffer, animals are sentient beings with feelings much like our own! I can’t be a part of that abuse & torture so prefer not to add to it by eating animal meats or stealing milk which is meant for animal offspring; being vegan or vegetarian is so much more healthy!! How would you like to live life in an iron jail for life; barely able to turn around.”
“I just don’t get this, the less an animal has suffered through life, the better the meat is supposed to be!! So why submit these animals to such barbaric torture, don’t tell me it’s to protect the young being sat on; that’s a load of old bull!!
If pigs are allowed to breed freely, are given straw to birth on & raise piglets, more will survive because the mom doesn’t sit on them on purpose!! When allowed, a sow will bring up her piglets just as well as a dog!!” These new viruses are being created by the way the animals are brought up…if your going to eat meat, the least you can do is make sure it came from a disease free farm!!”
On the heels of the recent viral diarrhea outbreak, yet another virus is plaguing pigs on factory farms in the Midwest, this time in Ohio.
“National Hog Farmer” magazine reports, “A new coronavirus has been identified in pig fecal samples from four Ohio swine farms, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.”The article explains that although the symptoms are similar to the ongoing outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), this is an entirely new coronavirus born of extreme confinement on today’s hog farms.
And according to “Feedstuffs,” the samples were taken from farms that “experienced outbreaks of a diarrheal disease in sows and piglets in January and early February.”The Ohio Department of Agriculture has yet to determine whether this new virus is the cause of the diarrheal outbreak.
Subjecting animals to a lifetime of confinement in crates so small they are virtually immobilized is perhaps the cruellest form of institutionalized animal abuse in existence.Combined with overuse of antibiotics, and unsanitary living conditions, these factory farm environments create a breeding ground for disease.
We can help stop the abuse of pigs and other animals on factory farms, as well as the spread of nasty superbugs, by choosing compassion at every meal. Check out ChooseVeg.com for delicious recipes and tips on transitioning to a plant-based diet.
Want the real simple truth? animals on today’s factory farms – even those raised on so-called humane farms – are treated as mere meat-producing machines, and their short lives are filled with misery and deprivation. See for yourself:
Viewer Discretion Advised -Farm to Fridge – The Truth Behind Meat Production
Mercy For Animals presents Farm to Fridge. Narrated by Oscar-nominee James Cromwell, this powerful film takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration behind the closed doors of the nation’s largest industrial farms, hatcheries, and slaughter plants — revealing the often-unseen journey that animals make from Farm to Fridge.
Yesterday police visited a Mullion Creek property and identified the carcasses of several dead sheep found on a nearby road after they were reported missing by a landowner.
Late yesterday afternoon a man was arrested and interviewed at Orange Police Station.
He was charged with six counts of aggravated cruelty upon an animal, seven counts of committing an act of cruelty on an animal, one count of entering enclosed land and five counts of stealing livestock.
The posting of the photograph on the social media site drew an instant response from the public with a barrage of comments condemning the man’s actions. Police launched an investigation to see if the Facebook posting and the landowner’s complaint were linked.
The Facebook photograph of two men with three dead sheep laid out beside a hunting dog was taken at night in front of a vehicle with the number plate clearly displayed.
Police said yesterday the sheep were identified as being from the property where the owner had reported his sheep missing on Friday night.
Yesterday, police alleged the animals had not been shot, with the carcasses displaying injuries that suggested they had been mauled by a dog and stabbed.
Jo Shearim, part-owner of Bullets n Bits, a hunting supply store in Orange, said the business was inundated with calls from outraged customers on Monday, shortly after the pictures had been posted on Facebook.
“Everyone is disgusted at this,” she said.
“It is this sort of behaviour which gives responsible hunters a bad name.”
An RSPCA spokesman said they had liaised with Orange police over the alleged cruelty incidents throughout the day.
Canobolas Local Area Command Inspector Dave Harvey said police investigations into the case were continuing.
The RSPCA said a charge of aggravated animal cruelty in NSW carried a fine of $22,000 and/or two years imprisonment.
The man has been refused bail by police and will remain in custody until his court appearance.
Emily Deschanel has the joy of raising her son every day, but mother cows on dairy farms have their calves torn away from them just hours after they’re born. Removing dairy products from your diet helps cows and keeps you and your family healthier. Find out how to cut dairy products out of your diet:https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy…
“Another video just in, which I just had to share with you, for obvious reasons. This kid didn’t have the guts to speak to Steve Hindi (President of SHARK) directly, so he leaves a message! Watch the video & listen to him…how old do you reckon this kid is? I would have to say between 8-11 years old; judging by his voice! As a parent, I would be embarrassed if I had a child of that age using such vulgar language! Whatever happened to parental skills??”
“This kid is having a bit of a tiff about a horse in one of SHARKS video collections on Rodeo. He wants to make out that it’s the horsesfault for bucking too much, hence the broken leg!
Excuse me, but if I were putting a bucking strap on my horse, knowing he is going to hate it & buck…any injuries that occur: I would have to say are my fault, not the horses. I put the strap on, knowing it would agitate him, which made him buck. It is the humans fault in cases like this; where animals suffer broken bones etc.
He is obviously from a rodeo family, so the question really is, what does rodeo teach young people? Well I can tell you what it doesn’t them; compassion, kindness, respect etc. etc. Watch, listen & make your own mind up!”
“Related: I’ve only added one link, as I’ve written too many posts to list here, so if you wish to read others, just do a search on the right of the page; type in rodeo!”
A boy from Canada shows how he has learned “rodeo family values.”
Rodeos are promoted as rough-and-tough exercises of human skill and courage in conquering the fierce, untamed beasts of the Wild West. In reality, rodeos are nothing more than manipulative displays of human domination over animals, thinly disguised as entertainment.
What began in the 1800s as a skill contest among cowboys has become a show motivated by greed and big profits.(1)
The Stunts
Standard rodeo events include calf roping, steer wrestling, bareback horse and bull riding, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, steer roping, and barrel racing.(2) The animals used in rodeos are captive performers. Most are relatively tame but understandably distrustful of humans because of the harsh treatment that they have received. Many of these animals are not aggressive by nature; they are physically provoked into displaying “wild” behavior in order to make the cowboys look brave.
Tools of Torment Electric prods, spurs, and bucking straps are used to irritate and enrage animals used in rodeos. The flank, or “bucking,” strap or rope—which is used to make horses and bulls buck—is tightly cinched around their abdomens, which causes the animals to “buck vigorously to try to rid themselves of the torment.”(3) The irritation causes the animals to buck violently, which is what the rodeo promoters want them to do in order to put on a good show for the crowds. The flank strap, when paired with spurring, causes the animals to buck even more violently, often resulting in serious injuries.(4) Former animal control officers have found burrs and other irritants placed under the flank strap.(5) In addition, the flank strap can cause open wounds and burns when the hair is rubbed off and the skin is chafed raw.(6)
Cows and horses are often prodded with an electrical “hotshot” while in the chute to rile them, causing intense pain to the animals. Peggy Larson, D.V.M.—a veterinarian who in her youth was a bareback bronc rider—said, “Bovines are more susceptible to electrical current than other animals. Perhaps because they have a huge ‘electrolyte’ vat, the rumen [one of their stomachs].”(7)
The End of the Trail The late Dr. C.G. Haber, a veterinarian who spent 30 years as a federal meat inspector, worked in slaughterhouses and saw many animals discarded from rodeos and sold for slaughter.He described the animals as being so extensively bruised that the only areas in which their skin was attached to their flesh were the head, neck, legs, and belly. He described seeing animals “with 6-8 ribs broken from the spine, and at times puncturing the lungs.” Haber saw animals with “as much as 2-3 gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin.”(8) These injuries are a result of animals’ being thrown in calf-roping events or being jumped on by people from the backs of horses during steer wrestling.
Injuries and Deaths
Although rodeo cowboys voluntarily risk injury by participating in events, the animals they use have no such choice. Because speed is a factor in many rodeo events, the risk of accidents is high.
A terrified, screaming young horse burst from the chutes at the Can-Am Rodeo and, within five seconds, slammed into a fence and broke her neck. Bystanders knew that she was dead when they heard her neck crack, yet the announcer told the crowd that everything would “be all right” because a vet would see her.(9)
Incidents such as this are not uncommon at rodeos. By the end of one of the annual, nine-day Calgary Stampedes in Alberta, Canada, six animals were dead, including a horse who died of an aneurism and another who suffered a broken leg and had to be euthanized.(10) The following year, at the same event, six more animals died: five horses in the chuckwagon competition and a calf in the roping event.(11) In 2005, fear caused a stampede as horses destined for the Stampede were being herded across a bridge; some jumped and others were pushed into the river. Nine horses died.(12)
The Omak Stampede is an annual event in Washington that features the Wild Horse Race, in which tethered wild horses are released into the arena while cowboys try to mount and ride them (one horse died in 2005). The event culminates with the Suicide Race, in which horses are ridden at furious speeds down a steep hill and into the grandstand. That event killed three horses in 2004; 19 horses have lost their lives to the race in the past 20 years.(13)
During the National Western Stock Show, a horse crashed into a wall and broke his neck, and another horse broke his back after being forced to buck.(14) Dr. Cordell Leif told the Denver Post, “Bucking horses often develop back problems from the repeated poundings they take from the cowboys. There’s also a real leg injury where a tendon breaks down. Horses don’t normally jump up and down.”(15)
Calves roped while running routinely have their necks snapped back by the lasso, often resulting in neck injuries.(16) Even Bud Kerby, owner and operator of Bar T Rodeos Inc., agrees that calf roping is inhumane. He told the St. George Spectrum that he “ wouldn’t mind seeing calf roping phased out.”(17) During Rodeo Houston, a bull suffered from a broken neck for a full 15 minutes before he was euthanized following a steer-wrestling competition, which was described by a local newspaper as an event in which “cowboys violently twist the heads of steers weighing about 500 pounds to bring them to the ground.”(18)
Rodeo association rules are not effective in preventing injuries and are not strictly enforced, and penalties are not severe enough to deter abusive treatment. For example, one rule states that “if a member abuses an animal by any unnecessary, non-competitive or competitive action, he may be disqualified for the remainder of the rodeo and fined $250 for the first offense, with that fine progressively doubling with each offense thereafter.” These are small fines in comparison to the large purses that are at stake. Rules allow the animals to be confined or transported in vehicles for up to 24 hours without being properly fed, watered, or unloaded.(19)
Spurn the Spurs If a rodeo comes to your town, protest to local authorities, write letters to sponsors, leaflet at the gate, or hold a demonstration. Contact PETA for posters and fliers.
Check state and local laws to find out what types of activities involving animals are and are not legal in your area. For example, after a spectator videotaped a bull breaking his leg during a rodeo event, a Pittsburgh law prohibiting bucking straps, electric prods, and sharpened or fixed spurs in effect banned rodeos altogether, since most rodeos currently touring the country use the flank straps that are prohibited by the law.(20)
Another successful means of banning rodeos is to institute a state or local ban on calf roping, the event in which cruelty is most easily documented. Since many rodeo circuits require calf roping, eliminating it can result in the overall elimination of rodeo shows.
DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS BLOG - SOME PICTURES & VIDEOS CAN & WILL BE VERY GRAPHIC - SO PLEASE, VIEW THIS BLOG AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
You can find out more about me & this blog by reading "ABOUT THIS BLOG" on the menu (when i finish it) lol
PLEASE NOTE.....
Not all of my posts will be current news, or even about animal abuse! I do like to share other animal news, uplifting stories or videos; some that are funny or just touch the heart!
If I have anything to say on any post, you will see it in bold blue writing. I try to remain a lady, but it's hard to contain my anger & emotions at the some of the stories I post; I don’t have a heart of stone, tears stain many articles I write!
Lastly, my apologies for any errors; I am learning whilst posting, so if you find anything that doesn't work or a broken link, sorry, I'm only human!!!!
ABOUT THESE POSTS
I would just like to make readers aware, that I search for stories on the internet; regards animal abuse etc. I copy stories etc. from the internet; assuming these stories are correct at time of publishing. Having said that, sometimes the press get it wrong! So I just want to add that at the time of me posting a news story, I presume all the facts seem present & correct.
Please note....all people mentioned in this blog, are presumed innocent, until proven otherwise, in a court of law.
Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.
Flag Counter Added May 2012
Face Book – Please Take Notice
For anyone wishing to connect to me via my Facebook page...PLEASE NOTE, ONLY PEOPLE I ADD AS ANIMAL ADVOCATES CAN SEE MY WHOLE PAGE...I do this out of respect for those friends I have who do not wish to see graphic images, videos or links of animal abuse!
As 99% of my page is animal related; anyone not in the above group of friends; will only see a limited amount of posts!!
DUE TO ANIMAL HATERS...I WILL ONLY ADD PEOPLE WHO CAN PROVE WHO THEY ARE via Facebook, Wordpress, Twitter etc. & WHO HAVE A GENUINE INTEREST IN ANIMAL WELFARE... i.e. if your Facebook page has absolutely nothing to do with animals, I see no point in joining my page. My Facebook is solely for animal welfare, I am not interested in playing games etc. I don't mean to sound rude but I am not interested in the amount of friends I have, its the quality of those friends that count.
PLEASE DO NOT SEND REQUESTS FOR YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN. I do not want anyone to be upset by graphic images etc.
My aim is to educate & raise awareness to the horrors animals face, at the hands of humans, every day, around the world!!
We can not hope to achieve better laws, to protect animals, unless we unite as one, to speak up for those who are voiceless!!
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DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS BLOG - SOME PICTURES & VIDEOS CAN & WILL BE VERY GRAPHIC - SO PLEASE, VIEW THIS BLOG AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
STOP ANIMAL ABUSE 
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