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Welfare Cowboys Leaching off “Land of Lincoln” Taxpayers |  |
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Dear Friends, This coming July 24-30, the National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA) will hold its national finals rodeo in Springfield, Illinois. Students trained to brutalize animals will come from all over the United States, Canada and as far away as Australia. Oh yes, and SHARK will be there as well. Illinois is said to have one of the best sets of humane laws in the country. The problem lies with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the agency charged with enforcing the law. The Department of Agriculture is far more interested supporting those who use and abuse animals than enforcing humane treatment. The following excerpt from the August 9, 2004 edition of the Leader newspaper demonstrates this point all too well:
Isn’t that special? Three brown-nosing bureaucrats, including the director of the agency charged with enforcing humane laws, traveled on the public dole all the way to Wyoming to suck up to a bunch of welfare rodeo thugs! It is telling that in spite of all the years I have been in contact with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, I have never met Director Hartke. In fact, no one I know involved in the Illinois humane movement has ever met him. I guess that’s because he has his nose buried too far up the posterior of his rodeo buddies. This isn’t the first time the national high school finals have been held in Illinois. SHARK investigators attended the NHSRA rodeo finals when they occurred in Springfield in 2000 and 2001. The investigators documented abuses that violated not only Illinois humane laws, but also the supposed humane rules of the NHSRA. The media attention on the cruelty and humane violations SHARK documented forced the Illinois Department of Agriculture to give a degree of protection to rodeo animals statewide, and eventually resulted in the first prosecution and conviction of a rodeo stock contractor. The Department of Agriculture apparently had enough damage to its reputation that it had to do its job, at least for a while. 
Now the Department apparently believes it can return to its old ways. Already the bureaucrats have started backtracking from the progress we forged in the last few years. The backtracking began as far back as last August, when SHARK investigator Mike Kobliska filmed a rodeo in Andalusia, Illinois, videotaping rodeo animals being shocked with electric prods to make them “perform.” Mike contacted the Department of Agriculture, and we provided them with video footage of the lawbreaking. A Department representative contacted the people putting the rodeo on and warned them not to do it again. The very next rodeo, in September, Mike again attended and again videotaped the same violations, with the only difference being that the stock contractor now tried to hide the shocking. Nevertheless, Mike documented multiple violations and again contacted the Department. The Department refused to take any action. The Illinois Department of Agriculture has demonstrated that is as spineless as it is incompetent. It is outrageous that one of the two most cruel and corrupt state agencies (the Illinois Department of Natural Resources being the other) is in charge of enforcing humane laws in the state. One historical note: In 2000 a spokesperson for then- governor George Ryan suggested that I was an “extreme activist” when we demanded action against the high school rodeo thugs. The governor tried to paint me, and by association SHARK, as a criminal. George Ryan has since been indicted, tried and convicted of corruption in federal court. He will be sentenced in August, and could receive as much as 20 years in prison. So much for who is the real “extremist.”
1) It is vital that we have enough people to videotape the NHSRA finals rodeo. This is an enormous event that includes two rodeos per day, with two arenas of cruelty ongoing simultaneously! If you can attend as a SHARK investigator, please contact me ASAP. If you have your own videocam, great. If not, we can supply one for you. Help be a part of history by documenting these cruel phony cowboys. Your evidence can do more to stop the cruelty than a thousand-person protest. 2) Write to the governor of Illinois to protest his state’s support of animal abuse. Demand that Illinois humane laws be strictly enforced.
Here is the
governor’s contact information: Here is a sample letter you can work from:
Dear Governor Blagojevich,
I demand that you spare no effort or expense to
protect rodeo animals, and that those who violate
humane laws are prosecuted to the fullest possible
extent. NOTE – Please pass any response you may receive back to me at: Shindi@sharkonline.org
You may recall that SHARK’s Tiger video truck received a citation and a $1,050 fine from the city of West Hollywood some weeks back. The citation claims we violated a law banning “mobile billboards.” The citation from code enforcement officer Dave Williams came under very suspicious circumstances. First, the Tiger has operated in West Hollywood many times in more than five years with no problem. It was only when we began exposing Hilary Duff, who spends time in West Hollywood, that we were cited. Furthermore, our Tiger Truck is not a mobile billboard, nor do we advertise. Last Thursday there was an administrative hearing on the citation. Mr. Williams was present, and our legal eagle, animal rights lawyer Shannon Keith, was able to ask him questions. Mr. Williams admitted that he noticed the Tiger Truck's Illinois plates, meaning he knew we were not from out of town. He admitted that he never tried to talk to us about the supposed “violation.” He could have, but chose not to first give us a warning, instead of an immediate fine. When asked why he went right to a fine ($1,050) instead of a warning, he replied that it was because he could.
Mr. Williams is quite a piece of work. He showed up for the hearing in shorts and a T-shirt. My guess is that he has a relative with some clout who got him a job in West Hollywood, and that the city stuck him somewhere where they figured he couldn’t do too much harm. I firmly believe that the only reason we were cited is due to the influence of Hilary Duff’s hired legal thugs. I think someone in her camp got to someone in West Hollywood. I think they figured that SHARK would pay the citation and never come back. They figured wrong!
The irregularities associated with the West Hollywood citation just keep compounding. Attorney Shannon Keith, who represents SHARK in this case, asked for discovery (evidence relevant to the case) prior to the hearing and was refused. It seems that these are people with something to hide. I wonder if that includes records of contact between Ms. Duff’s legal thugs and the city. If West Hollywood’s administrators have any sense at all, they’ll abandon this fight. SHARK will not allow any town to chill our 1st Amendment rights. It won’t be our first trip to federal court. If you have not yet contacted West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, I ask that you do so now. If you have already written or called, I ask that you do so again. West Hollywood has a reputation for being animal friendly, but it is starting to look like this reputation is as invalid as that of the supposed animal lover Hilary Duff. Please contact Mayor John Heilman at:
Mayor’s Office
The discovery happened when SHARK’s Alissa Finley looked at the list of entertainers for the Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming, one of the most infamous and vicious rodeos in the United States. When SHARK investigators attended this rodeo last year, we watched one animal after another be dragged out. Carrie Underwood was a winner on the “American Idol” television show. An Oklahoma native, Ms. Underwood claims to be a vegetarian animal lover. This sounds great, but why then is Ms. Underwood scheduled to perform at the abusive and deadly Cheyenne Frontier Days? At this point we do not know the answer to that question. A letter of inquiry was sent from SHARK to her P.O. Box over a week ago, and additionally other attempts to contact her are underway. So far there is no response from Ms. Underwood. I hope we don’t not have to “Duff” (our new term for expose) another celebrity. I hope Ms. Underwood will reconsider her actions, and will then act with more conviction than the utterly classless Hilary Duff. The next week should tell us what we need to know, and we will report whatever happens to you via our E-Updates.
Don’t forget that SHARK will be represented at the AR2006 conference in Washington, D.C. in August. We have not made a decision yet about bringing the Tiger truck, but it is possible. I will be speaking on a number of topics, and I look forward to seeing our friends and supporters there. For more information about this event, go to: AR2006
SHARK’s Tiger video truck has just returned home from the West Coast, having done a great job of exposing first Starbucks Coffee, and then Hilary Duff. Last November the Tiger started from Illinois and worked its way to the southern west coast, and then up the coast to Starbucks headquarters in Seattle. Then it was back down the coast to Los Angeles for our friend, the silent and spineless Hilary Duff. Now the Tiger has come home for some much needed work and attention to prepare it for the next round of campaigning against rodeos and all the other abuses we want to highlight. SHARK needs your donations to pay for the work on the Tiger, so it can continue to be a successful revolutionary tool for the animals.
Kindest Regards,
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