Activists seek ban on rodeo
(This article was published in The Journal News)
Journal News, The (Westchester County, NY)
The Journal News
March 1, 2002
MOUNT VERNON
Activists seek ban on rodeo
National group complains about cruelty to animals
Stacy Brown
The Journal News
A national animal rights group has petitioned the Mount
Vernon City Council asking that it bar the city from hosting rodeos.
The group, SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness, or
SHARK, said the rodeo was more about cruelty than family fun.
Kiley Blackman, a local representative of SHARK, was
among a group of Westchester residents who protested last year's three-day
rodeo in Mount Vernon.
Organizers of the rodeo are in talks with city
officials about hosting another rodeo this year, but Council President
Steven Horton said yesterday the city is not sure if the rodeo will return.
Steve Hindi, president of the Illinois-based SHARK,
said, "(Rodeos) abuse animals and take tame and domesticated animals and use
pain and fear to make them act wild."
Al Evans, a co-founder of Cowboy ! Mania, the group
that hosted Mount Vernon's rodeo, said his event is all about entertaining
and educating children and their families. "This is teaching children about
their American ancestors through Western culture and horsemanship," Evans
said.
Evans said his rodeos never use cattle prods or other
inhumane methods to stir up the animals. Evans said it is groups like SHARK
that help keep rodeos honest. "They're the ones who find those unscrupulous
cowboys who abuse animals," Evans said.
Hindi said he doesn't believe there are any scruples
when it comes to the rodeo.
"Most bulls and horses aren't going to buck wildly on
their own," Hindi said. "So rodeos use a prod or a stun gun to make them
buck. It causes the animals a lot of pain and we want them to stop."
Last month, the Greenburgh Town Board was preparing to
ban traveling circuses and rodeos from municipal property, a move that would
make Greenburgh the first town in Westchester County !
to legally prohibit the display of large animals in captivity for amus ement
purposes.
The ban would not apply to school or private property.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner called it a "humanitarian
issue."
Though the Greenburgh law would set a precedent in
Westchester, other municipalities around the country - such as Stamford,
Conn., Hollywood, Fla., Southampton, N.Y., and Quincy, Mass. - have already
prohibited big-animal shows.
Reach Stacy Brown at [email protected] or
914-637-2240.
Copyright (c) The Journal News. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
*This was done in association with SHARK:
Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the
copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on
the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted
material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain
permission from the copyright owner.