Ms. Glensgard,
SHARK has a long history of working with other animal protection organizations. That said, it is not necessary that we are partners so long as we are actually pulling in the same direction. My problem is that the voices of organizations like ours must be raised at this point. Quiet has not worked. There are those in Boone County who are clearly in the pocket of the rodeo people, both on the board and in the state's attorney's office. The state's attorney is making blatantly false claims to the board. One example is claiming that because something is not specifically outlawed that makes it legal. That's nonsense, as I am certain you know. One cannot, for instance, hold a gerbil stomp simply because the law doesn't say that gerbil stomping is illegal. As Dr. Bromwell once stated, "it's not possible to make a law to counter the cruelty of every goofy human."
The state's attorney is allowing new permits to be handed out to locations that have a history of abuse, even though she admits that those permits are discretionary, and can/should be withheld for lack of compliance. Every single location we've investigated has been out of compliance every single time, and yet this state's attorney is handing out more permits to the same violators.
Some of the nonsense going on in Boone County is really off the scale. Change is coming much quicker in McHenry and Will Counties, and I expect it will be the same in Ogle County, where we are now actively working as well. We are not mudslinging for dollars. We never have, and never will do that. I am not, and have never been paid. On the contrary, I am a donor.
We are calling on HAHS to make your collective voice heard because another season is about to begin, and the suffering these animals are enduring is not only indefensible, but also illegal. Just last Saturday we shot a rodeo wherein at least a couple animals were run 24 times in a single day. Others were run in the high teens. American rodeo associations run an animal once in a performance. Animals with broken legs and other injuries were left to suffer with no veterinary care, which is of course illegal.
SHARK has exposed rodeo animal abuse across the country for the last three decades, but the worst of it turns out to be in our own backyards. If your organization was called the Rabbit Rescue Society, this would be somewhat different, but as the Hooved Animal Humane Society, I should think this issue would be every bit as compelling to you as us. The rodeo people are openly, wantonly breaking the law, weekend after weekend, month after month, year after year. Their victims are suffering cruelty, injuries, abandonment and death. It must end.
Your organization's name is known, and yet, it is not part of the conversation. I would certainly know if it was. If you're talking to the Boone County State's Attorney's Office, you might as well be talking to a pile of hay. The Department of Agriculture is even worse. It's been so long since they did anything productive, they no longer even have people who know what to do. That's no overstatement. We obtained their emails through FOIA, and they actually don't know what to do.
The Boone County Board needs to hear from you, in no uncertain terms. Your approved humane investigators could be checking these places out. With our drones, we could be giving them a heads up on what to look for, and what is going on. There are any number of ways we could work together, or we could work separately, but if you are making any effort, the impact has not been felt, and the lives of rodeo victims are on the line every week.
The season has started. Animals are already literally dying to entertain, and it has to stop.
Steve
