Showing Animals Respect & Kindness drone video again provides evidence
JOLIET, Illinois––The ongoing Showing Animals Respect & Kindness campaign to document animal abuse at unsanctioned charreada “Mexican style” rodeos in the greater Chicago area on November 8, 2023 brought criminal charges against a charreada participant for the seventh time in two years.
“The Will County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to announce the recent arrest of Ezequiel Herrera, 26, of Lockport Township regarding two counts of animal cruelty,” a Will County Sheriff’s Office media release said.
Eleven minutes, 33 seconds
“On October 2, 2023,” the media release specified, “detectives with the Will County Sheriff’s Office received information regarding animal abuse occurring at an unlicensed rodeo in Lockport Township.
“A representative from the animal rights organization Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), provided detectives with an eleven minute and thirty-three second video of drone footage which showed various acts of alleged animal cruelty.
“Several steers were observed to be in physical distress with injuries, while participants continued to utilize the steers for the rodeo.”
SHARK, the Will County Sheriff’s Office media release continued, “provided the Will County Sheriff’s Office with drone footage of other animal abuse complaints occurring at various rodeo events located throughout Will County.
Allegedly shocked steers in face & head
“In this particular drone footage, an unknown man later identified as Ezequiel Herrera began to utilize an electric cattle prod to shock the steers in the face and head. This was done repeatedly in an attempt to make the steers move closer to the alleyway of the door used to release the animals into the arena. The use of the cattle prod to the face and head of the animals was done in such a manner that it was disturbing to watch.”
The suspect, Ezequiel Herrera, “admitted to using the cattle prod on the steers at the rodeo,” the Will County Sheriff’s Office said.
Receiving a cruelty complaint from Will County Sheriff’s Office detective R.J. Austin, county judge Art Smigielski “issued a criminal complaint summons for Ezequiel Herrera on two counts of animal cruelty. Ezequiel Herrea is expected to make his first court appearance on December 15, 2023 regarding these charges,” the Will County Sheriff’s Office said.
(SHARK photo)
Horse-beating charges pending
The media release finished by thanking SHARK “for bringing these crimes to the attention of the Will County Sheriff’s Office,” and pledging that “Crimes like this against animals in Will County will not be tolerated.”
Likewise basing criminal charges on SHARK drone video footage, the People of the State of Illinois, represented by the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Joliet, county seat for Will County, on October 3, 2023 brought two misdemeanor cruelty charges against alleged horse-beater Christofer Dorado, of Batavia, Illinois.
Also known as Cris Dorado Aguirre, Christofer Dorado was caught repeatedly by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness drone video on July 30, 2023 in the acts of punching horses, flogging horses with their reins, harshly pulling horses up short by their bits, and spurring horses until they bled.
(Boone County Sheriff’s department photo)
Jose Aguilar cases postponed
While Showing Animals Respect & Kindness only began monitoring Will County charreadas in 2023, three participants in the 2022 Boone County charreada season were criminally charged as result of Showing Animals Respect & Kindness video documentation.
Recounted SHARK founder Hindi, “One of the horse abusers, Jose Aguilar, was charged with criminal misdemeanor. Not surprisingly, Jose was arrested two weeks later for domestic violence.”
Both cases against Aguilar were due to go to court on October 23, 2023, Hindi told ANIMALS 24-7, but have now been postponed until February 2024.
(See Horses Beaten, Hard Reined, Spurred in Boone County.)
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Keep reporting these criminals to the world and I will, too.
Sharing with gratitude…and hope.
It’s amazing how much Steve gets done as one person and a relatively small budget. Try reporting organized cruelty to HSUS or ASPCA and watch nothing happen at all.
While I surely appreciate the kind words of Rs, I do not work alone. SHARK is a half dozen people. Some of us have been together for well over a decade.
The team is made up of dedicated and extremely talented heroes, and I could do very little without them. I wish this movement would give them the support they deserve, because then we could do more for our nonhuman friends.
Charreadas feature nine standard events, three of which involve the roping of running horses by the legs, either front (“manganas” – aka “horse tripping” – two styles, one on foot, one on horseback) or rear (“piales”).
Plus the even more brutal “steer tailing” event (“colas”), in which a mounted charro (cowboy) grabs a running steer by the tail, wraps the tail around his leg and stirrup, then rides off at an angle, slamming the hapless steer to the ground. Tails may be stripped to the bone (“degloved”), even torn off, and horses sometimes suffer broken legs when the steers run the wrong way. None of these events are standard ranching practice anywhere in the U.S.
I worked on a case near Denver back in 2010 in which SEVEN steers had their tails “degloved” in one afternoon; two others suffered a broken pelvis and broken leg. No veterinarian present, according to the local Sheriff’s Dept. (See Google.)
LEGISLATION IS IN ORDER EVERY STATE TO STOP THIS CRUELTY. California was the first state to ban “horse tripping” back in 1994, soon followed by a dozen other states. Nebraska is the only state to have outlawed both “horse tripping” and “steer tailing.” Others should follow suit. Even Cesar Chavez was an outspoken critic.
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Eric Mills, coordinator
ACTION FOR ANIMALS
Oakland
afa@mcn.org