Extra Helping of Squid 7.22.13: Yippee-Ki-Yay…

Squids and sharks go together about as well as an improperly maintained British Petroleum oil rig and the Louisiana Gulf Coast. The two should never mix, else wise, bad things might happen, and mostly to the poor squid. But over the weekend, Squid was on the receiving end of a bunch of emails from Shark—and found Squidself had more in common with the great beast than previously thought.

 In this case, the shark came in the form of Illinois-based nonprofit SHARK, or Showing Animals Respect and Kindness. SHARK’s mission, according to its website, is “to nonviolently battle animal abuse whenever and wherever possible.” SHARK founder Steve Hindi was a hunter who had what he describes as a moment of clarity and began opposing all hunting in earnest. In the 1990s, he used a parasail and a bullhorn to disrupt a pigeon hunt at the Woodstock Hunt Club, drawing a six-month jail sentence for contempt in violating a restraining order the club had against him.

Now Hindi and his team arm themselves with video cameras and shoot instances of animal cruelty at circuses, bullfights and “whale jails,” or animal parks. This weekend they turned their lenses on the California Rodeo Salinas. Over the course of three days at the rodeo, they captured three videos of animals being injured. On July 19, a young steer was killed during a roping event after a horse trampled it; the steer was injured about 15 seconds into the video—the remaining 3 minutes and 52 seconds show the animal suffering. (About the worst part—immediately after the injury happened, the steer lay there, its neck bent at an awkward angle and its tail flopping back and forth as it waited. Eventually it was loaded onto a lift attached to a tractor; it died just after it was driven out of the ring.)

In the second video shot July 20, a calf being chased by five cowboys on horseback during a team roping event appeared to have suffered a broken leg. The video shows the animal, its front right leg unusable, hobbling and hopping out of the ring and back into a pen with other stock. Nearly three minutes into the three minute, 15 second video, no human had attended to it, although the video shows a number of men standing around and watching it.

By Sunday, another calf was injured; according to SHARK, it too appeared to have suffered a broken leg.

“I sit there in the stands and I watch people and they’re either woefully misinformed or even more woefully careless, or a combination of the two,” Hindi says. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I still don’t understand it. This is not respecting Western history, this is a perversion of Western history.”

According to rodeo marketing manager Mandy Lindquist, Rodeo Veterinarian Tim Eastman described the accident that mortally injured the steer as a “freak accident.” The horse and the cowboy, Lindquist says, were uninjured. The calves in the other two incidents have had their broken legs casted and are recuperating, she says.

Now SHARK is calling for a boycott of Macy’s, which was a sponsor of this year’s California Rodeo Salinas. In its campaign, SHARK has a picture of the steer trampled by the horse; instead of “The Magic of Macy’s,” which is the company’s tagline, the copy reads, “The Malice of Macy’s,” with what appears to be blood spattered across the page. A Macy’s spokesperson didn’t respond to several requests for comment.

Squid understands that many hold the rodeo and its traditions—from the Kiddie Kaper and Colmo del Rodeo parades to the crowing of the rodeo queen to the camaraderie the events create—near and dear to their hearts. But Squid hopes rodeo officials will figure out a way to make events safer for the animals who have no say in being there, and move a hell of a lot faster in ending the suffering of any injured in future events. Because this year it was humans: 3, animals: 0.