The owners of Chicago's "trendy" and "classy" XO Restaurant (apparently if you want to be trendy you have to have a stupid name) were planning on a big night on New Years Eve. Eager to make a profit at any cost, XO was serving up foie gras, diseased duck liver which is made by force feeding the victims via a long tube rammed down their throats three times daily for weeks until they die from the abuse or are slaughtered. It is a horrendous process that causes injury and prolonged suffering. But for the narcissists of the world, whether they are the producers or the consumers, it's all just part of a self-centered existence.

XO planned on a big crowd for the holiday, and they got it, although not quite the way they had anticipated. A cooperative effort of members of the Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL), In Defense of Animals (IDA), Mercy for Animals (MFA), and SHARK gave the restaurant quite a gathering. In the early evening, just about when folks would start heading out for a special New Years Eve dinner, the Tiger video truck and approximately 40 activists descended upon the XO.

Almost as soon as the Tiger pulled up, a parking spot opened up right across the street from the XO. Suddenly, the ambience for XO customers transformed from a bustling Chicago street on New Year's Eve, to a horrific lesson in how foie gras comes to be. XO customers – whether consuming foie gras or not – were to learn an unforgettable lesson about animal cruelty this night.

A besieged XO staff pulled its partially see-through blinds to shield its customers from the horrific video and protesters' signs and banners, but it was a futile effort. On a night when other restaurants were unable to keep up with the crush of business, XO had at best a trickle of customers willing to brave such an environment. Happy New Year, XO!

XO is one of a number of restaurants serving foie gras in blatant violation of a Chicago ordinance banning the substance. The ordinance made national headlines. Unfortunately, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a foie gras fan with a long record of ignoring animal concerns, has repeatedly mocked the new law, and his government has so far refused to prosecute restaurants that openly flout the law.

right-Once the curtains are drawn, attorney/activist Bryan Pease declares victory over the face off between the protesters outside and heartless XO owners and patrons inside.

Please call (312-746-5162) or write to the Chicago Department of Health, at 1713 S. Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL, 60608. Politely but firmly demand that the city enforce the foie gras ban.

You can learn more at StopForceFeeding.com.

The New Year has arrived, and the only thing Cingular has done with regard to its rodeo sponsorship is to attempt to cover it with a ridiculous form letter claiming that animals are not mistreated by the Rodeo Mafia.

A number of people including me have dumped the company and I for one feel great about it. My money will no longer go to rodeo thugs. So far I have not received a notice that the company will try to charge me a termination fee, but I hope it does because I'm in a mood for a fight with this gutless corporate animal abuser. Read what other former customers have written to Cingular at CingularSponsorsCruelty.com.

To help you understand Cingular's excitement over its rodeo sponsorship, we have included some excerpts of Cingular press releases. Cingular thinks rodeo animal abuse is great, and all of the video, pictures and other evidence the company has been given means nothing – Cingular is intent on sponsoring animal abuse! The first excerpt is about Cingular's sponsorship of a calf abuser named Monty Lewis:

"We are pleased to partner with such a likable athlete and individual," said Dave Garver, Executive Director of High Growth Segments and Sponsorships at Cingular Wireless. "Monty Lewis is the ideal ambassador for professional rodeo and a big reason behind the sport's growing popularity among all types of fans.”

So, calf abuser Lewis enjoys chasing down a terrified 200-pound baby calf on a 1200-pound horse, clotheslining the baby animal around the neck, slamming the calf on the ground, tying the baby’s legs together, while the calf lays wheezing and gasping with the horse dragging him by his neck through the dirt. THIS is the sort of person that Cingular thinks is “a likable athlete and individual.”

Another Cingular press release touted the company's sponsorship of bullriders:

"This is an excellent opportunity for Cingular to be involved in one of the most popular spectator sports in country," said David Garver, executive director of high growth segments and sponsorships at Cingular Wireless. "Justin McBride and Paulo Crimber are two of the emerging stars in professional bull riding and are great examples of athletes raising the bar in their sport. We look forward to our partnership with these two talented competitors."

Please remember that every time you make a payment to Cingular, the company turns around and gives some of that money to rodeo animal abusers. There are plenty of other companies out there that will be happy to have your business. As far as we know, Verizon is the only other cellular provider that is currently sponsoring rodeo, the enormous Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. However, even Verizon has given SHARK written assurance that it will not be sponsoring the Houston Rodeo in 2008.

We will soon announce plans to confront Cingular on numerous levels. I am really looking forward to what is to follow.

The first thing for Cingular customers to do is to Dump Cingular. If you are with a different wireless provider, please let Cingular know that because if its rodeo sponsorship, you will not consider them when your current wireless contract is up.

One possible alternative to Cingular is Humane Wireless, a service offered by Working Assets (WA). In the last update I mentioned that I went from Cingular to WA. A portion of the money spent with Humane Wireless goes to a humane organization. In response, one subscriber responded with information that WA is not a vegan company, and that it has a promo that includes an offer of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. SHARK will contact WA and try to hold a discussion on this issue, and will revisit this issue in the future. Meanwhile, whomever you sign up with, please do dump Cingular.

SHARK is working with two attorneys who are looking forward to taking up cases against Cingular. If you live in California or Illinois, and have already dumped Cingular or want to cancel your contract for ethical reasons, please contact SHARK. We are looking for persons willing to consider status as plaintiff in a suit against Cingular for non-penalized cancellation of a contract.

Finally, SHARK is looking into the logistics of bringing the Tiger Truck to Atlanta, GA, Cingular’s headquarters. If you live in the Atlanta area and can help us by checking out a locale for the Tiger, let us know. (please email to shindi@sharkonline.org)

right-This calf was painfully foul-roped at the High School Rodeo.

So far, the investigation has included interviews with three of the six SHARK investigators who videotaped the rodeo. These were strange interviews to say the least. Two people from the Ag. Department asked questions of us, but would not answer any questions posed to them. My guess is that this is because every time the Ag. Department start talking they get themselves in trouble.

The questions were fairly pointless – along the lines of what days were we filming and what did we see and what did we think were violations of the law. This is ridiculous because we gave the Department copies of our videos, so they know what days we were filming, and they know from looking at the videos (assuming they did so) what we saw.

SHARK wants a rodeo investigation to expose the cruelty that we documented, punish the animal abusers involved, and stop it from happening again. But from the perspective of the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the administration of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, this "investigation" isn't, and has never been about the abuse at the National High School Finals Rodeo. Instead, it is all about how the State of Illinois, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and its cronies in the Rodeo Mafia can escape responsibility for the animal abuse SHARK filmed and the state allowed.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please write to Governor Blagojevich and demand that he stop the corruption at the Dept. of Agriculture. Even if you did it before, please to it again. No one ever said that stopping animal abuse would be quick or easy. I know that fighting government corruption and incompetence is an uphill battle to say the least. Asking Blagojevich in particular to stop corruption is like asking a fish to stop living in water. All the more reason that we should keep the pressure on this pathetic excuse of a political "leader."

For more information and to see photos and video of rodeo abuse being investigated, go to IllinoisCorruption.com.

Speaking of high school rodeo, this is almost unbelievable but irrefutable proof of the absolute corruption of the National High School Rodeo in particular, and the Rodeo Mafia generally. Last August, Larry Lancaster was ordered to stand trial on 11 felony charges including sexual assault, bribery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Click here to read this sickening story. Mr. Lancaster runs Larry Lancaster’s Rodeo School and Lancaster's Rock-N-Roll Rodeo Gear, which is a sponsor of the National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA). You can see the listing for Lancaster's company in the right hand column of the NHSRA site.

Now it's one thing that Lancaster was a rodeo sponsor before he was arrested, but that Lancaster, standing trial for sexual assault of teen boys, is still a sponsor of high school rodeo is more telling than perhaps any other single event that testifies to the utter lack of morals or ethics of rodeo. Rodeo people say the rodeo is a family activity that is great for the kids. Do they mean great for kids, or rather the predators that target them?

We will keep you updated about this sick, sleazy and utterly repulsive story, but I hope you have a tough stomach.

It took a trip by the Tiger to the Los Angeles area and articles in the National Enquirer and Star gossip magazines, but Hilary Duff has apparently decided that rodeos are not a good promoter for her career. We have been watching the web sites for those rodeos, and her name doesn't come up. We have been unsuccessfully looking for her concert schedule to confirm that she has also abandoned her bullring appearances in Spain. If anyone knows how to find her schedule, please feel free to let us know. Hilary finally did the right thing, even if it was for all the wrong reasons .

While Hilary Duff isn't showing her face at rodeos, one name worth mentioning has come up on the San Antonio rodeo's concert schedule. Montgomery Gentry is a country music duo, and one half of that duo is Troy Gentry.

Gentry apparently imagines himself to be a "Great White Bowhunter," so he bought a tame bear in Minnesota, and while in an enclosure fired arrows into the young animal. Then Mr. "Great White" Gentry tried to fake the incident to make it look like it was a regular hunting atrocity as opposed to a canned hunting atrocity. After initially denying criminal charges in the matter, Gentry changed his plea to guilty, demonstrating that he is not only a cowardly animal abuser, but a liar too. Click here to read more about Gentry’s conviction.

Gentry's upcoming scheduled appearances at the San Antonio and other rodeos shows the utter contempt rodeo people have for animals, the law, and any common decency whatsoever. That's why we call it the Rodeo Mafia.

In our last update we told you about the BALCO steroid scandal that involves defense attorney and PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) commissioner Troy Ellerman. Ellerman has been identified by a former associate as the individual leaking Grand jury testimony to reporters, a violation of court and ethical rules. One story on Yahoo! Sports states that Larry McCormack, a former Ellerman associate who reported the leak to the FBI, asked the FBI not to confront Ellerman during the national finals in Las Vegas because basically it would "spoil the event for entire rodeo industry and cause Ellerman unnecessary embarrassment." Incredibly, the FBI agreed to the request!!!

Perhaps this explains why there has been no subsequent news of the Ellerman leak, and no charges being brought – it just hasn't been a good time for Mr. Ellerman and the Rodeo Mafia. Perhaps the FBI could lessen the impact of doing its job by delivering Mr. Ellerman and the PRCA's board flowers and some chocolates, or perhaps tickets to the theater. What kind of nonsense is this? I don't seem to recall the FBI calling SHARK (or any other activists) before engaging in its harassment activities to ask if it was a “good time”. How would that work anyway? Something like this?

Ah, yes, Mr. Hindi? This is Agent Moronic of the FBI. I was just wondering, would this be a good time for us to falsely accuse you of making bomb threats against the Olympics? And would you mind if we falsely accuse you of planning to release rodeo animals at the National High School Rodeo Finals?

Now I admit the above paragraph is a completely ridiculous scenario, but according to Ellerman crony Larry McCormick, that is actually the kind of thing that happened in the case of Ellerman's alleged leak in the BALCO case, and the FBI actually has made false claims that SHARK made bomb threats against the Olympics, and falsely claimed that SHARK planned to release rodeo animals at the high school rodeo finals. The FBI isn't part of the solution for the strange times we are living in – it's a big part of the problem.

An activist recently emailed asking that we announce a rodeo protest. The only problem was that the protest was less than 48 hours later. While I'd like to think we move pretty fast, we're not quite THAT fast. But it got me thinking. If you are planning a protest outside your local rodeo, let us know at least a couple weeks beforehand (4 weeks ahead would be even better), and we'll include it in our updates. That said, it is always a good idea to have people inside the rodeo with videocams. People with videocams can get evidence of abuse that can be effective long, long after the protests are forgotten.

So plan your protests and let us know, and most importantly, don't forget to send some people in with videocams to document and expose rodeo animal abuse.

Long-time vegetarian advocate and PETA issue- promoter, k. d. lang, has inexplicably lent her vocal talents to support rodeo animal abuse.

Please take a moment and remind Ms. lang that rodeos are not "fun" for the animals victimized by this cruel industry. It is baffling why one segment of marginalized and oppressed people would take enjoyment in and compensation from oppressing another group of beings.

The only way that SHARK has found to contact Ms. lang is via her publicist/agent. Please send a note to Ms. lang via her webpage (scroll to the bottom) here:

Read more about k. d. lang's appalling rodeo support here:

Remind k. d. lang of her compassionate roots!