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Anti-Rodeo Activists Protest at Home of Madison Square Garden President Andrew Lustgarten

December 17, 2019 by Leave a Comment


The News

Animal rights activists in New York have staged four protests at the Manhattan home of Madison Square Garden president Andrew Lustgarten, demanding that he cancel a rodeo scheduled for June 2020. The ongoing protests are being organized by Animal Cruelty Exposure Fund (ACEF) and NYCLASS, animal rights organizations based in New York.

During the protest, Janet Enoch, Investigator of Showing Animals Kindness & Respect (SHARK), an organization that has been exposing rodeo cruelty for three decades, told bystanders why the rodeo is cruel: “Rodeos shock the animals to make them buck and appear wild. Rodeo contestants rake horses and bulls with spurs causing internal hemorrhaging. Rodeos use the buck strap which causes abdominal pain. In an effort to get the buck strap off, horses sometimes crash into walls often causing injury or death.  Animals should not be tortured for human entertainment.”

Agitated by the ongoing protests, Mr. Lustgarten’s neighbors are lashing out at the participants. On the evening of December 8th, a woman wearing pajamas exited a nearby apartment building and angrily confronted protesters before attempting to enter Mr. Lustgarten’s building to complain to his security team.

An angry neighbor attempts to enter Andrew Lustgarten’s building to complain about the protest.

For the past several years, ACEF has staged protests at the annual Professional Bull Riders’ event at Madison Square Garden, but the organization decided to move the protests to Mr. Lustgarten’s residence when it learned that MSG would also be hosting the rodeo.

“Calf roping,  steer wrestling, and other rodeo events are acts of extreme violence masquerading as entertainment,” said Nora Constance Marino, the President of ACEF. “Rodeos are nothing more than horrific acts of violence towards defenseless terrified animals, many of whom are mere babies torn from their mothers.”

As part of its ongoing effort to compel MSG to cancel the rodeo, ACEF launched a petition with Change.org.

Both ACEF and NYCLASS have vowed to continue protesting Mr. Lustgarten until he cancels the rodeo.

 


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LGBTs Bully and Abuse Animals at Gay Rodeos

August 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment


The News

In press coverage surrounding the gay rodeo in Ohio this week, the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) says that “No one faces discrimination during the LGBT event.” In other words, everyone is invited to twist the neck of a terrified cow and wrestle him to the ground. Andrew Zollman, a San-Francisco-based activist with LGBT Compassion said during one of his LGBT rodeo protests, “As gay people, it is personal to us that people in our community would, after experiencing oppression and abuse and having to fight for their own rights and protections, turn around and unnecessarily abuse and bully animals.”

gay rodeo

News & Opinion

Rodeos are animal-bullying events masquerading as sport. How can LGBTs, many of whom, like me, have been bullied, organize a spectacle centered around abusing animals who have no voice? If anyone, gay or straight, did to their dogs what is done to the bulls, steers, calves, horses and other animals at rodeos, they would be charged with animal cruelty. Also disheartening is to see gay people bullying and attacking other gay people who stage peaceful protests outside of these events. Learn more and consider protesting at one of the many upcoming LGBT rodeos.


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