SHARK Challenges Super 8 Hotels for Sponsoring Rodeo Cruelty!

DEAR FRIENDS,

In response to the Super 8 chain of hotels sponsoring the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) and rodeos, SHARK has sent the following letter to Steve Holmes, Chairman and CEO of Wyndham Worldwide (parent company of Super 8).

...

Dear Mr. Holmes,

On Sunday, September 25, a representative of Wyndham Worldwide wrote the following on Facebook. This was in response to a patron of your hotels who was appalled at your sponsorship of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association and rodeos.

"Wyndham Worldwide

Carol, thank you very much for sharing your comments. We appreciate you taking the time and commend your concern for the rodeo livestock. Please know that we also care about the welfare of animals, and the associations we sponsor have assured us that they provide outstanding care to the livestock. For example, the PRCA has 60 rules in place that provide for the proper handling of the livestock at their events. This includes requiring a veterinarian on-site during all competitions. We hope that you'll share specific concerns with the PRCA at:

Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association

Attn.: Animal Welfare

101 Pro Rodeo Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80919"

SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) has documented severe animal cruelty at PRCA rodeos from one end of the country to the other for almost two decades. We've seen calves, steers, bulls and horses brutalized and bloodied. We've recorded the cries of young animals in pain. Our videos show broken bones and bodies and even the tragic and senseless deaths of numerous animals abused in rodeos.

You may hope we will share our "concerns" with the PRCA, but as their sponsor you bear specific responsibility for the animal abuse your money pays for. This is an issue of corporate responsibility and culpability. More to the point, that you would tell your customers who are against animal abuse to contact the PRCA is akin to pouring salt on a wound. Our experience has shown that The PRCA is the great whitewashing machine designed to protect rodeos and not the animals forced to perform in them. They do not publicize animal injury reports, identify violators of their supposed humane rules or whether infractions resulted in discipline.

We've seen the response you gave on Facebook before; it is the standard operating procedure handed out by the PRCA to its sponsors. It's meaningless. The only question is if you were aware of how meaningless it was before we contacted you, or if your company was honestly fooled by the PRCA. Either way, this is an issue your company will no longer be able to ignore.

I am sending you the links to a few videos which show how worthless the PRCA rules which you choose to hide behind are. Our objective, however, is to show these videos to you in person. Therefore we want to schedule a meeting with you within the next two weeks so we can sit with you and show you definitive evidence of animal cruelty at PRCA events.

Please know that we will be coming to your headquarters in Parsippany whether you choose to meet with us or not. We will bring our documentation to show to the public and media, and also to record that your company was made fully aware of the abuse that happens at your sponsored rodeos.

Sincerely,

Steve Hindi
President, SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness

DON'T LOOK! The PRCA doesn't want you to realize how cruel rodeos really are