But one vet has quite a lot to say about the animal injuries
BELVIDERE, Illinois––The Board of Supervisors in Boone County, Illinois, has yet to hear from any veterinarian willing to admit to being the legally required veterinarian-on-call for notoriously brutal charreada or “Mexican-style” rodeos frequently videotaped by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] since 2021 at three Boone County locations.
But the Boone County Board of Supervisors did hear from veterinarian George Bates on June 20, 2024, in no uncertain terms.
“I have viewed much of the drone footage taken by the organization SHARK at Mexican-style rodeos taking place in Boone County,” wrote Bates, from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a town razed by Confederate troops on July 30, 1864 essentially for standing up against slavery.
“Appalling”
“The one word I would use to describe what the videos capture is: appalling,” Bates said.
“The suffering and injuries to steers being inflicted in these events purely for entertainment purposes is degrading and should shock any normal human conscience. Breaking tails, degloving tails, fracturing legs, breaking horns, breaking backs, breaking necks on these animals is inexcusable, and I am surprised that they are allowed to routinely occur in any civilized jurisdiction, not the least being Boone County.
“The excessive use of electric cattle prods to move animals visible in some of the videos is also totally inappropriate,” Bates mentioned, “as is the repeated use of the same animals over and over again, as is reportedly occurring at these venues.
(SHARK photos)
“A licensed vet for 50 years”
“By way of introduction, I have been a licensed veterinarian for 50 years,” Bates explained, “and the first half of my career was almost entirely cattle practice. I grew up on a dairy farm and I know something about handling cattle.
“Believe me gentlemen and ladies: what is visible on these videos taken by SHARK is not the way cattle, or any animal for that matter, should ever be treated. The suffering inflicted is severe,” Bates diagnosed, “and there does not appear to have been any effort to mitigate that suffering with appropriate veterinary care or timely euthanasia,” as the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act requires.
The videos that Bates referenced include steers suffering from five severe back injuries, nine severe head injuries, two broken and bleeding horns, and a tail degloving, all videotaped on May 11, 2024
Listed vet service denies affiliation
Bates wrote two weeks after Stateline Veterinary Service, listed on Boone County charreada event permits as the on call veterinarian of record, on June 7, 2024 emailed to Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi that, “Stateline Veterinary Service did NOT have any affiliation with the referenced event including attendance, veterinary oversight or on-call emergency service and will NOT have any affiliation with this event in the future.”
Since Illinois state law requires that rodeos, including charreadas, have on-call veterinarians, this would appear to establish that the Boone County charreada promoters, the most active of whom is Gracie Robles of Capron, Illinois, have not met and do not currently meet the prerequisites to obtain event permits.
Stonewalling
But Hindi continues to be stonewalled by the Boone County board of supervisors and bureaucracy in response to repeated inquiries––seven to date––as to whom, exactly, keeps issuing the event permits, in blatant disregard for state law.
Neither Boone County state’s attorney Tricia Smith nor her assistant Karla Maville has responded, Hindi told ANIMALS 24-7, but as Hindi keeps reminding them, “During [recent] ad hoc committee meetings about steer tailing events, assistant state’s attorney Maville stated on at least two occasions that special use permits are ‘discretionary.’
“I can provide video documentation of her statements if needed,” Hindi wrote.
“So far in 2024” Hindi recouned, “two locations have held steer tailing events – 289 Irene Road in Kirkland on April 13, and 16471 Capron Road in Capron on May 11.
“If you aren’t doing anything wrong, why no transparency?”
“Both of those locations have a history of abuse. Both of those locations, not surprisingly, committed more violations of both state humane laws and county ordinances during their 2024 dates,” including “no veterinary care for injured animals, the continued use of injured animals, and the absence of identification bibs for people working with the steers.
“The lack of ethics on the part of the state’s attorney’s office, and the county generally is extremely troubling,” Hindi challenged.
“If you aren’t doing anything wrong, why is there no transparency?
“Some of you claim everything was fine with these cruel events for the last 25 years,” Hindi continued to the Boone County board, “but it was never fine. No one ever ‘did it right,’ as has been previously stated. Boone County’s oversight was delinquent for a quarter century, and it remains delinquent today. Anyone claiming otherwise is either a complete fool, or a liar.”
Hooved Animal Humane Society still quiet
Hindi also remains exasperated with the Hooved Animal Humane Society, of Woodstock, in neighboring McHenry County, Illinois, for near silence about charreada mayhem to hoofed animals practiced with impunity for decades at multiple locations within an hour’s drive or less of the Hooved Animal Humane Society headquarters.
As of April 15, 2004, when ANIMALS 24-7 detailed the issues in SHARK yanks Hooved Animal Humane Society’s tail over charreada, the entire Hooved Animal Humane Society public record on charreada in the present century consisted of two emails of inquiry sent on October 20, 2022 from Hooved Animal Humane Society executive director Cynthia Glensgard to the Boone County board and officials, plus a statement sent to ANIMALS 24-7 at our request on April 11, 2024, in which Glensgard wrote that, “The Hooved Animal Humane Society condemns any action or treatment of animals that results in their pain and suffering. This statement includes steer-tailing, running animals to exhaustion, beating them, and not providing vet care. We find these acts to be cruel and inhumane.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
But sics lawyer on Steve Hindi
If the Hooved Animal Humane Society has said or done anything further in response to animal abuse at the Boone County and other nearby charreadas since then, it has not been forwarded to the attention of ANIMALS 24-7 and has not turned up in web-searching.
However, on May 22, 2024, Chicago attorney William J. McElhaney III of Mayer Brown LLP wrote to Hindi, “We have been retained by the Hooved Animals Humane Society (‘HAHS’) to send you and Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (‘SHARK’) this letter demanding that you cease and desist making defamatory comments regarding HAHS.
“This matter arises out of an email you sent on April 10, 2024, and statements you made to ANIMALS 24-7, which were then published on April 15, 2024. As you know, the article accuses HAHS of, inter alia, being ‘silent’ on charreadas.”
Hindi: “Go ahead. Make my day.”
McElhaney III, on behalf of the Hooved Animals Humane Society, demanded that Hindi withdraw his criticisms of HAHS, and suggested that if “we have not received a satisfactory response from you” by June 7, 2024, “we reserve the right to pursue any and all applicable legal remedies.
Responded Hindi on June 1, 2024, “I think court is the appropriate place to determine exactly who did or did not say or do whatever in this matter.”
Eric Mills of Action for Animals in Oakland, California, meanwhile on June 6, 2024 emailed reminders to 27 California charreada teams reminding them that “California rodeo law, Penal Code 596.7, enacted in 2000, amended in 2007 so as to include charreadas, requires that all rodeo/charreada animal injury reports be submitted to the State Veterinary Medical Board in Sacramento. These reports are public record, available upon request.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Eric Mills: “Not a single charreada injury report ever filed”
“Incredibly,” Mills wrote, “though numerous rodeo injury reports have been submitted over the years, not a single charreada report has ever been submitted.
“It seems likely that the majority of the charro community is unaware of the California state law and its veterinary/reporting requirements,” Mills suggested.
“Failing to abide by Penal Code 596.7 could be expensive for any violators,” Mills mentioned, since it provides for “A fine of not less than $500 and not more than $2,000 dollars ($2,000) for a first violation,” plus “A fine of not less than $1,500 and not more than $5,000 for a second or subsequent violation.”
Obtaining the fines will require activists to submit documentation of animal injuries to the California State Veterinary Medical Board, but Hindi and Showing Animals Respect & Kindness, with the help of the California-based Humane Farming Association, have already demonstrated that drones can gather dramatic evidence at a considerable distance from anywhere that humane observers might be in immediate physical jeopardy.
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As always, thanks for shining the journalistic light so persistently on the many abuses that animals endure at human hands!
Thanks for the ongoing publicity on this unacceptable situation. I’ve been working on charreada issues since the early 1990’s here in California. (Reportedly, the three states hosting the majority of these events are–in descending order–Texas, California and Illinois.) Injuries are routine. I worked on a 2010 case near Denver in which SEVEN steers had their tails stripped to the bone (“degloved”), and two others suffered a broken pelvis and broken leg, both requiring euthanasia, all in a single afternoon. “No vet present,” according to the local Sheriff’s Dept. The horses used may suffer broken legs when the steers run the wrong way. Even Cesar Chavez was an outspoken critic of both rodeos and charreadas.
CLEARLY, STATE LEGISLATION IS IN ORDER. Two California counties (Alameda & Contra Costa) outlawed “steer tailing” in 1993. California banned “horse tripping” in 1994, soon followed by a dozen other states. The State of Nebraska outlawed both “horse tripping” and “steer tailing” in 2007 (two of the charreada’s nine standard scored events). Others should follow suit: county & state. California boasts the most progressive rodeo/charreada law in the country, Penal Code 596.7, enacted in 2000, amended in 2007, with major bi-partisan support. The law requires either an ON-SITE or ON-CALL veterinarian at every rodeo and/or charreada, bans the use of “hotshots” in the holding chutes, and requires that animal injury reports be submitted to the State Veterinary Medical Board. These reports are Public Record. EVERY STATE SHOULD HAVE SUCH A LAW, MINIMUM.
Relatedly, see prize-winning documentary, “BUCKING TRADITION” – http://www.buckingtradition.com (also available on YouTube).
A steady flow of letters to the editors of local newspapers could help remedy this sorry situation.
Thanks to SHARK for all your hard work.
x
Eric Mills, coordinator
ACTION FOR ANIMALS – Oakland
email – afa@mcn.org
AND A P.S.: The California rodeo injury reports required by Penal Code 596.7 are Public Record, and available for free for the asking. Will give one interested a good idea of the injuries and deaths endured by the animals.. This law has been in effect since the year 2000, amended in 2007 so as to include the charreadas. Both bills had MAJOR bi-partisan support. EVERY state should have such a law, MINIMUM. The PRCA, racetracks, horse shows and endurance rides all require on-site veterinary care. So should all rodeos, charreadas and “steer tailing” events.
Email the Veterinary Medical Board at: enforcement.vmb@dca.ca.gov
HUMAN DEATHS – at Texas “steer tailing” events –
https://interactives.dallasnews.com/2016/unregulated-rodeos/
Business as usual, as in so many places and instances where the innocent suffer and perish and no one in power cares. Throughout time, the voiceless remain voiceless and the powerful act, and conceal, with impunity, because all that is necessary for the prevalence of evil is the silence of the majority.
Sharing with gratitude.
Shameful for those organizations and officials in the area who had a duty and an opportunity to rectify the travesties, yet stood by and did nothing. What’s their problem?
It is stunning to fully appreciate that these ongoing extreme acts of violence and brutality–so close at hand and out in the open–filmed and documented in heartbreaking detail–by SHARK, Eric Mills, veterinarians, and others–have not been the object of an aggressive campaign–supported by the financial wealth provided by donors–of the large groups who could stop this cruelty.
This is 2024. How did we get to a place where it is acceptable to ignore the suffering of these animals?
Animal groups that make statements that rodeos are cruel, organize screaming protests outside of rodeos, or declare that they are on the side of compassion have not helped a single animal brutalized and killed in rodeos–but they do bring in donor dollars.
What is needed is an aggressive and fully funded campaign against this cruelty with the support of legislators and legislation — by the wealthy groups who can engage their tens of thousands of members–not by telling them to contact their legislators–which they won’t do–but by supplying the letters that members can click on and send as well as contact information for those legislators.
This is standard procedure by these groups for legislation about animals they care about. That care has not extended to animals in rodeos.
People can only begin to fully care about cruelty to animals in places they cannot see–laboratories, factory farms, slaughter houses, fur farms, etc.– when they have been sensitized to recognize cruelty to animals right in their home towns–like the rodeos down the street.
Ignoring animal suffering in one’s neighborhood does not help eradicate systemic animal cruelty in our society.
Animal advocates can contact the groups and individuals most prominent in animal advocacy and inquire why they have ignored the animals in rodeos–and what specifically they intend to do about protecting these animals.