September 23, 2022

Dear Friends,



Apologies, the word "try" should have been in this title: Sincere appreciation to everyone who helped us to TRY to stop this charreada.

It was late last night and we were prepping for today's event and rushed to get this update out to everyone. Sorry for the confusion. We will document the cruelty today and continue our work to get these events shut down!

First, I want to thank each and every one of you who have responded to our request for calls and emails to the various departments in Boone County, Illinois, in our attempt to stop the indefensible animal abuse occurring at charreadas, also known as Mexican rodeos.

Over the past few weeks, our drones have filmed animals endlessly shocked, used over and over as many as twenty or more times in one day, and animals with various injuries including broken legs that go completely unattended. These comprise violations of Illinois’ state humane law - the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act.

Unfortunately, laws are only as good as the people behind them, and the lesson that has been forced down my throat over the past few weeks is that Illinois, in the final analysis, is not much better than Kentucky.

We’ve proven that beyond the lack of animal protection, Boone County is allowing these charreadas to go on even without the proper security that is supposed to protect people also. This was supposedly going to stop the charreadas, but now magically, at the eleventh hour, tomorrow’s charreada supposedly has a proper security company in place so it will go on, but neither the Boone County Building Department, nor anyone else in county government, will tell us who it is. What kind of nonsense is this??????!!!!!!


This steer tailing arena is being raked and prepared for another cruel and deadly event tomorrow

The Illinois Department of Agriculture, which is supposed to enforce the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act, has proven to be worse than worthless, and has actually been downgrading prior protection for animals in rodeos.

I know corruption when I smell it, and the stench of corruption is overwhelming in Boone County and elsewhere. For the past few years, we have railed against Kentucky corruption, but now I have to accept that Illinois doesn’t look much different. That, I assure you, is going to change.

Tomorrow, the SHARK Team will be there to document the abuses of the charreada, and we expect that we will be pressured by the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, which already tried to pressure us two weeks ago. These charreadas are making a lot of money, and it is painfully obvious that one or more entities in Boone County government are partaking of the vile profits.

Tonight the Team and I are outraged, ashamed, and what should concern Boone County and the State of Illinois the most - determined and prepared. Tomorrow we won’t be making phone calls or holding signs - we’ll be recording hundreds of acts of abuse, and we will expose Boone County for as long as it takes to utterly wipe the cruelty and corruption out of that disgusting county. Then we’ll take on the next county allowing this garbage, and the next, and the next.

What lies before us is another major campaign, as I not only intend that we will deal with this throughout Illinois, but we will also then move against these events in other parts of the country. This added to our ongoing efforts against American rodeos, pigeon shoots, cockfights, dogs bred for experimentation and the other work we do is more than we can handle, but we will do our very best with your help.

I want to again thank all of you who have helped! With your help, we shall not fail. Anyone who thinks that animal activists are weak because they care about animals is in for a very hard lesson in reality.

Kindest Regards,

Steve Hindi, Founder and President

SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK)

Thank you for helping the victims of these brutal events!