From SHARK -
[email protected]
Dear Friends,
As most of you know, the Olympic rodeo went off in a
series of three performances, February 9-11. While this may lead some of
our people to believe that our efforts against the rodeo world were
fruitless, I am here to tell you that this is not the case.
I consider this campaign to be one of the most
productive I have ever been a part of, and I have little doubt that our
opposition also feels that the animal protection movement was the big,
big winner. However, since there was no clear knockout in this match-up,
let's score this contest, and see who wins on points, in the style of
the Olympic Games.
Here at SHARK, we have impaneled a team of specially
trained, specially qualified judges (actually, its just me) to carefully
and skillfully (well, I'm taking my best shot) score this contest.
In October, the atmosphere in rodeo-friendly Salt Lake
City (SLC) was extremely hostile to animal protectors. Mitt Romney,
president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) referred to
animal protectors as "a bigger threat to the Olympics than Osama Bin
Laden." The media ate it up, and the anti-animal rhetoric went on
unabated until the Tiger Truck arrived with its video images of
undeniable rodeo animal abuse. Almost immediately, the polls in SLC
began to reflect the effect of the Tiger.
Score a point for the animals.
Salt Lake animal protector Colleen Gardner made a
presentation to SLC Mayor
Rocky Anderson. After careful consideration, Mayor Anderson publicly
came out against the Olympic rodeo.
Score a big point for the animals.
When a couple columnists for a local Salt Lake newspaper
write articles bashing animal protectors, I challenged the columnists,
as well as the staff of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and
local rodeo supporters to a debate. Not one rodeo supporter shows. The
blowout was well covered by the television, radio and print media.
Score another point for the animals.
In early January, with the rodeo on shaky ground, Utah
State Representative Paul Ray entered the rodeo controversy with claims
that SHARK is a terrorist organization that had threatened the Olympics
-- a completely baseless and utterly ridiculous claim that received a
far amount of media attention.
Score a point for the rodeo Mafia
On January 4, the Tiger caught the Olympic Torch in
Chicago, Illinois, beginning a dizzying month-long odyssey that would
take it to cities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, New
Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. This resulted in millions of people seeing
the Tiger's rodeo presentation directly, and more millions see it by way
of media coverage.
Score a whole boatload of points for the animals.
In early February, Ray repeated his baseless charges
about animal advocates being terrorists on live Salt Lake City
television, after he foolishly agreed to debate me on the rodeo issue.
Mr. Ray lost the debate, and lost more when SHARK filed a defamation
lawsuit against him. The story of the lawsuit received media attention
around the nation.
Score more points for the animals.
When the Olympic Torch came to Taylorsville High School,
the Tiger showed up to support the High School's student animal rights
group. While local police and teachers stood by and did nothing, violent
pro-rodeo students pelted the truck with snowballs, ice balls and
bottles. Two shark video cameras documented the violence, and numerous
students have been suspended. One student who jumped on the side of the
Tiger, leaving numerous dents, faces criminal charges. The violent
people - the rodeo people - were again exposed.
More points for the animals.
When the Olympic rodeo finally went off, it was not a
bull, but a steer. The calves and steers, the victims who usually suffer
the most in a rodeo, were treated with kid gloves, to the point that
they had little reason to run out of the chutes. They seemed to sense
that they had a free pass for a change.
The contestants were the most proficient lot the rodeo
Mafia had to offer. These guys aren't supposed to miss, but they missed
a lot of the animals because they had to take great care not to hurt
them. Calf ropers roped air, and steer wrestlers made contact with the
ground, while steers stood back at the chutes and watched.
Score another point for the animals.
When at one point the rodeo people became so frustrated
with the stalling steers, they began tail pulling, which was a direct
violation of promises from SLOC president Mitt Romney and Olympic
Cultural Director Ray Grant that tail pulling would not happen.
Unfortunately, the animal abusers had a SHARK video camera watching
them, and their cruelty became the topic of a SHARK press conference.
This resulted in another wave of negative attention to the rodeo, and
the Olympics.
PRCA "animal welfare coordinator" Cindy Schonholtz gave
conflicting statements to the media. Schonholtz told one newspaper that
tail pulling was a violation of PRCA rules, and that a contestant could
be disqualified. However, she told another newspaper that the PRCA had
no specific rule against tail pulling. So, Cindy, what's the real deal?
Based on the rodeo Mafia sticking its cow dung encrusted
foot in its mouth, score another point for the animals.
In the case of the bucking horses, the rodeo used huge
horses that bucked less, but were harder to injure. These horses dwarfed
the pickup horses. It was still cruelty, but it was to a lesser degree.
Score another point for the animals.
For the bulls, it was a holiday from the electric prod.
With more of their faculties, the bulls did quite a job on a few of the
contestants.
Score another point for the animals.
Back in December, animal protectors from the US, England
and Germany traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland to meet with Dr. Patrick
Schamasch, an official with the International Olympic Committee. Dr.
Schamasch said the committee would look into the rodeo issue in general,
but promised that rodeo contestants would not get bronze, silver and
gold medals. However, the same Dr. Schamasch was in the rodeo stands
watching when his promise was violated, and rodeo contestants did
receive bronze, silver and gold medals.
Scoring on this issue is split. Score one for the phony
cowboys for getting what they didn't deserve, but score one for the
animals for our expose of spineless Olympic officials.
The rodeo Mafia was so upset about the media attention
given to animal protectors, they decided to spurn any reporters who
properly reported both sides of the story. The media spurned included
CNN!
Score another point for the animals.
With the Olympic rodeo hemorrhaging in the area of
public relations, they had to bring in the biggest rodeo apologists the
polygamy state has to offer. Governor Mike Leavitt, Senator Orin Hatch,
and my debate buddy Utah State Representative Paul Ray did their best to
lend an air of credibility to the spectacle.
All right, like it or not, political cronies count.
Score a point for the rodeo Mafia.
A very interesting thing that happened during the
three-day rodeo was the transformation of the local police. In the
beginning, they were professional, but not particularly friendly. But
after they watched the Tiger's images for a while, the cops
overwhelmingly had a change of heart. They were doing just what we do,
focusing on the victims!
The cops connected with us, and became very sensitive to
the plight of rodeo animals! I must admit that even I was surprised.
They didn't have to say a thing, but they wanted to. They wanted us to
know that they hadn't realized the crap that went on in rodeos, and did
not support it now that they saw it for themselves.
Score a paddy wagon full of points for the animals!
At one point, when I was in the rodeo and Colleen
Gardner was the only person in the Tiger, a group of rodeo thugs tried
to make their way to the truck, and their intentions were not good. The
newly educated police descended on the rodeo goons, who were
unceremoniously whisked away.
Score a point for the animals!
A great deal of the success of the Olympic rodeo
campaign is due to the efforts of Colleen Gardner. Whatever Colleen
lacked in animal protection experience, she more than made up for it
with her determination, professionalism, resourcefulness, and her
boundless energy and enthusiasm. SHARK would not have put a tenth of the
time, effort and resources into this campaign had it not been for
Colleen Gardner.
With the inclusion of Colleen Gardner, score a big point
for the animals.
If the idiots in the rodeo Mafia had any sense at all,
they would have foreseen the public relations disaster. But don't expect
intelligence from the rodeo Mafia, and you'll rarely be surprised.
The rodeo may be over, but it seems like our work has
just begun. The Tiger is still operating at the Olympic Games, and will
be in Salt Lake for some weeks to come, where it will continue to rack
up points against the rodeo Mafia.
We have multiple police departments from cities across
the country that must now be internally investigated for their
misconduct as the Tiger shadowed the Olympic Torch. The media that this
will generate will shine light on the corruption of the Olympics in its
sponsorship of animal abuse.
SHARK intends to rack up countless points against the
Olympics and its filthy rodeo for months to come, and the rodeo Mafia
has been incredibly helpful in arming us with facts and figures to use
against them.
Throughout the entire campaign, I am unaware of so much
as a single obscene word or gesture used by any animal protector, while
the rodeo people were obscene, violent and cowardly. We took the Tiger
into the rodeo strongholds of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and stood up
for our beliefs, while the rodeo people, with the exception of one
hapless Utah State representative, continue to run from debates.
I'm running out of places for all the points for the
animals!
The latest Olympic story in the Salt Lake Tribune has an
Olympic police officer getting berated by SLOC president Mitt Romney for
a traffic backup near an Olympic venue. The officer says Romney used the
F-word twice. The officer and his supervisor are demanding an apology.
You see, good little Mormon boys like Romney aren't
supposed to use the F-word. Not even once! Of course, Romney denies the
charge, saying he said nothing more damning than hell. But then, I
remember Mitt Romney saying that he would eliminate calf roping, and
saying that no tails would be pulled and twisted, and that there would
be special videographers at the rodeo to make certain that everything
was kosher, which there weren't.
So did Romney use the F-word? Now let me see if I have
this straight. A police officer just decided to fabricate a story about
the SLOC boss using the F-word, twice? Most interesting.
Did I mention that we found the police in Salt Lake City
to be a good bunch of people? They were honest and trustworthy in all
their dealings with us. And now they are ganging up on poor, poor Mitt
Romney? I don't think so!
Oh, by the way, the final sentence of the article reads,
"Utah Department of Public Safety chief Robert Flowers has decided
against a profanity probe." Now call me cynical, but wouldn't you think
that if Romney were innocent, he would encourage and even demand a
probe, to get to the truth?
I say hook both the cop and Romney up to a lie detector,
and I'll put my money on the cop for truthfulness.
Mitt Romney brought cruelty and violence into the
Olympic Games, which are already racked with charges over and over again
of corruption, score fixing and other scandals. Mitt lied throughout the
rodeo controversy. And now, Mitt is becoming a potty-mouth, just like
his rodeo buddies.
I don't know why anyone in Salt Lake is surprised.
In conclusion, and as the judge in this contest, I am
awarding this campaign to the animals, and not just rodeo victims. All
animals benefited from this effort, including in parts of the country
where they are most abused. Also, there should be Gold Medals of
Compassion to Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, all the animal protectors
who helped to make this campaign so successful, and to the Tiger.
Still in the beginning of the New Year, we opened up a
nonviolent can of whip-ass on the phony cowboys and corrupt Olympic
officials, and the rodeo season has just begun!
Kindest Regards,
Steve Hindi
SHARK
Go on to
Return to 17 February 2002 Issue
Return to Newsletters
** Fair Use Notice**
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I 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.