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SHARK's First Amendment Rights Violated by Cheyenne Frontier Days
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SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) is currently at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo (CFD) in Cheyenne Wyoming. SHARK personnel are exercising their First Amendment rights by video-documenting animal cruelty and injuries occurring at the rodeo.
On Saturday, July 30, a horse was injured and likely killed. As SHARK President Steve Hindi video-documented the situation, a CFD volunteer, who appeared to be under the direction of CFD Tickets Chairman Jim Gorman, deliberately stood in front of Mr. Hindi to block his ability to film the injured horse.
 | The innocent horse that was badly injured, lying in her own urine.
Rodeo thugs from left to right: The assailant who hit Steve Hindi, the CFD volunteer who tried to block the videotaping of the fallen horse, and the CFD official who told him to do it.
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The following is Mr. Hindi's statement about the event that unfolded.
"During the wild horse race, a horse went down and immediately went into convulsions. As this was happening, I suddenly got hit hard in the back and the assailant said "Nice job asshole!" I turned to see who had hit me, and when I turned back to see the horse, a CFD volunteer was standing right in front of me. He tried to block me from filming, including putting up his arms and waving them. When I tried to move around him, he moved along with me and did all he could to block me. I eventually had to stand on a chair to get over him.
I thought he was acting on his own until I saw Jim Gorman, CFD Tickets Chairman, mouthing and motioning instructions to the volunteer and it became clear that Gorman was directing the volunteer to impede my view and deter my ability to film the injured horse. Once the horse was hauled away in a trailer, they both left."
On July 19, prior to the CFD, Lisa White, SHARK's attorney, sent a letter to the City of Cheyenne, Laramie County, the CEO and General Chairman of CFD and Chairman of the CFD Board of Directors, advising them of their potential legal culpability with respect to violating SHARK's First Amendment rights and to "...ensure that SHARK's members are not harassed and prevented from filming at the CFDR."
"I'm surprised and disappointed that the City of Cheyenne and the CFD would continue to harass SHARK's members engaging in protected activity at the CFDR," states SHARK's attorney Lisa White. "We will be assessing this situation in greater detail and will then take whatever legal actions are necessary to protect SHARK's First Amendment rights and to see that all culpable parties, including the City of Cheyenne and the CFD are held legally accountable."
SHARK has videotaped more than a dozen animals being injured at the CFD this year. This includes three horses prior to Saturday, and three more on Saturday itself. One of the horses, Check Mate, died. Some of the others may have been killed as well. CFD officials are not discussing the injuries. The videos SHARK has posted have caused outrage worldwide.
"What the CFD official and volunteer did was deliberate violation of our First Amendment rights," states Hindi. "We did nothing wrong. All we did do was show the outrageous abuse that is happening. Apparently that was too much for the CFD to bear."
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Kindest Regards,
Steve Hindi and Your SHARK Team
"Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves." - Cesar Chavez, civil rights and labor leader, founder of the United Farm Workers
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