Animal rights group rips rodeo
Bloomberg News
Published June 11, 2008 at 10:22 a.m.
An animal-rights group accused the Colorado Springs- based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association of misusing copyright law to stop videos of alleged cruel treatment of animals from being posted on YouTube.
An animal-rights group based in Geneva, Ill., photographs and videotapes rodeos "in order to expose and publicize animal abuse, injuries and death," according to the complaint the group filed Tuesday in Chicago federal court.
The organization - Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, which uses SHARK as an acronym - created a YouTube account and posted 20 videos it said documented rodeo abuse.
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association sanctions U.S. rodeo events.
In December 2007, the association delivered take-down notices to YouTube, claiming the animal-rights group had violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by posting rodeo videos, according to the complaint.
The cowboys' group told YouTube it owned the copyrights to the posted videos and hadn't authorized any such use, according to court papers. YouTube then closed SHARK's account and disabled access to all the videos the rights group posted.
According to its complaint, the cowboys group "can't claim copyright in any live rodeo event," SHARK said.
The rights group claims the cowboys invoked the copyright act "in order to chill SHARK's efforts to raise public awareness of animal abuse at PRCA-sanctioned events . . . ."
YouTube restored SHARK's account in December.
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June 11, 2008
12:18 p.m.
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Sam_Scottson writes:
It doesn't seem very cowboy like to try and shut down free speech. We get upset when people start fooling with the 2nd Amendment, well it is just as bad to desecrate the 1st Amendment.
Or maybe the videotape shows something the PRCA isn't proud of? If that's the case then they should clean up their act before they try to throw out the Constitution just to cover up their mess.
June 11, 2008
7:53 p.m.
Suggest removal
mc12345 writes:
Where to start. First, rodeo is a sport just like any other sport. You cannot take a video camera into sporting events any longer, it's been that way for some time. The event holds ALL copyrights to ANY lawful or unlawful video shot. That's where the animal terrorists are wrong. If they bother to read the signs as they walk into the rodeo grounds they'd know this.
Second, rodeo animals are some of the best treated in the world. These animals are athletes and work a majority of 20 seconds a night. They are well fed, well cared for and a part of the stock contractor's family. The horses are some of the best in the world and could be compared to hunter/jumpers, cutters and other horse athletes.
SHARK needs to simply get a life. I saw these videos, what the man did was "legal" in the sense of "buzzing" a horse out of the chutes. The "buzzer" was little more than a ring attachment and many have been "joked" with the same such buzzers in a handshake.
Animals that don't want to buck, don't, buzzer or no buzzer and they get sold for other uses from the string of animals. It's a sad day when just anyone can take you to court and make you spend members' money to defend yourself.
June 11, 2008
8 p.m.
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mc12345 writes:
Have you ever even been to a rodeo? Have you ever been to a stock contractors house or his pasture and seen where these animals live in the wide open grasslands of many a small town? Animals that are watered, fed, cared for, babied, pampered and more.
If you want abuse you should start driving around and seeing starving horses in the backyards of every Tom and Harry, that thinks they need to own a horse because they have .25 acres. If you want to see real abuse why dont' you spend some time in a homeless shelter or stand in a soup line and look at CHILDREN who need help or money.
Rodeo may not be your cup of tea but that hardly means it's full of suffering. That's ridiculous. Most rodeo people have good money and advanced degrees and they dedicate their lives to a way of life you will never understand. They are happy people for the most part, spiritual and often conservative, and that's probably your real issue. You liberals have a really hard time letting others just live their lives without your input. Sad.
June 16, 2008
7:54 a.m.
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mjasper writes:
Rodeo cruelty is about one thing only: Torturing, tormenting, and deliberately inflicting pain and suffering on unsuspecting innocent animals in order to make them "perform." All animal welfare organizations who oppose rodeo's inhumane treatment and exploitation of animals can attest to the severity of the "crimes."
Has anyone opened a gate to any field and had a calf bolt straight out at a dead run? The only way a calf would do that is if it has been so tormented that it's in full "flight" mode. It's most likely been terrorized and probably shocked, over and over, while it's confined, unable to escape.
Of course rodeo promoters don't want any evidence. They shock bulls and horses as well with high voltage, clandestine, hand-held devices. Then they act as if, "Whaaaaat...what's wrong with YOU?" With the calf, they see nothing wrong with snapping calfs' necks at the end of a rope, picking them up, slamming them to the ground, and hog tieing them. The weird thing is the wannabe cowboys inflicting this trauma think they are sooooo baaadddd. This is serious criminal animal abuse.
Rodeo must be banned, but more than that, the perpetrators must do some serious jail time. As long as all officials look the other way, rodeo crimes will continue. Until rodeo is banned, all organziations that work toward that end must be supported.