Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) has started a new campaign to stop the Army from subsidizing rodeo cruelty, which IDA fully supports. Every year, the U.S. Army gives about $2 million of taxpayers' money to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys' Association (PRCA) and the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) in hopes of recruiting soldiers into their ranks. The cash is spent on sponsoring cowboys who cruelly treat unwilling horses, calves, and bulls like nothing more than living sports equipment in their pursuit of fame and riches.

To call rodeos a form of animal abuse is no exaggeration. Perhaps most fans of this "sport" don't realize that the animals are being brutalized for their entertainment, and that thousands are hurt every year -- some fatally. Because of the violent nature of rodeo events (with names like bronco busting, calf roping, and steer roping), animals commonly suffer such serious injuries as torn ligaments, broken bones, fractured horns, internal bleeding, and even severed spinal cords or tracheas. After a lifetime of abuse and confinement, most ultimately end their lives in the slaughterhouse. Get the facts about rodeo cruelty.

What You Can Do

Please send an email to the Department of Defense politely urging them to immediately stop the Army from using taxpayer money to support rodeo cruelty.