Coca-Cola, Stop Harming and Killing Animals

Coca-Cola once had a policy not to sponsor animal cruelty events such as rodeos and now you're back sponsoring them again.  I urge Coca-Cola to make it a permanent policy not to sponsor rodeos.  Rodeos are inherent animal cruelty, pure and simple.  Rodeos take docile animals and try to make them seem aggressive.  Bulls and horses are tormented in the chutes prior to release into the ring.  They are forced to wear bucking straps, and the rider uses spurs, which dig into the animals' flesh.  Investigators at The Humane Society of the United States have documented rodeo participants across the country using electric prods, flank straps, sharpened sticks, and other pain inflicting devices to frighten animals into performing.  Human and animal injuries are common, due to the violence of these events.  One rodeo cowboy said of bucking straps and electric prods, "If you can't use those devices, then you have no rodeo" (Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Dec. 26, 2000).

Animal experts oppose the rodeo.  The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, The Humane Society of Canada, and World Society for the Protection of Animals are just a few national humane organizations against rodeos.  Peggy Larson, DVM says, "Without torture, there can be no rodeo."  Dr. C.G. Haber, a veterinarian who worked for 30 years as a meat inspector in slaughterhouses, saw scores of animals discarded from rodeos and sent to slaughter. Toughened as he was to animal suffering, the condition of animals from rodeos sickened him. He described them as "so extensively bruised that the only areas in which the skin was attached (to the flesh) were the head, neck, leg, and belly. ... I have seen animals," he said, "with six to eight ribs broken from the spine and at times, puncturing the lungs. I have seen as much as two to three gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin. Bullfights are merciful compared to rodeos. It's high time this cruel sport be outlawed in the United States."

Complaints about rodeos are forwarded to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), which sends the complainant a "soothing" letter saying that PRCA's "humane rules" protect the animals. Actually, these rules are worthless; they are rarely enforced, and when they are, the fines imposed on the cowboys are so small as to be meaningless in comparison to the big prize money being vied for.

Just as one example of cruelty at one rodeo, Cheyenne Frontier Days, which Coca-Cola sponsors, is notorious for abusing animals.  An article in Wyoming Tribune Eage (http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2006/08/06/news/import-108327.txt) says animals were shocked with a Hot-Shot at Cheyenne and the PCRA does little or nothing.  Video footage of a steer being dragged at the 2007 Cheyenne Frontier Days is viewable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50nf7Io52c0.  Mr. Kent, view the video and tell me that is humane. 

I look forward to your response.