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May 16, 2013

Hayward, CA - Cotton Rosser, owner of the Flying U Rodeo Company, will supply animals for the Rowell Ranch Rodeo on May 18th & 19th, 2013.  Rosser is well known to SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), an Illinois-based animal protection group specializing in rodeo investigations. SHARK president Steve Hindi says Rosser’s Flying U Rodeo has a long and cruel history of shocking horses to make them appear wild.

In 2008, Cotton Rosser’s Flying U Rodeo Co. produced the Rowell Ranch Rodeo, which was fined $2,500 by Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD) for violating a rodeo rule that bans the use of electric prods.

Hindi says he fully expects Rosser to shock horses during the upcoming rodeo. Spokespeople for Miller Manufacturing, maker of the electric prod, have long stated that the prod was designed only for hogs and bovines. Miller spokespeople have stated that the prod should not be used in a rodeo environment, and should never be used on horses but that won’t stop Rosser.

Cotton Rosser and the Flying U have become infamous for using the electric prod to make animals perform and have previously been investigated on animal cruelty charges. As pressure and scrutiny from the humane community, rodeo committees and law enforcement have increased in the past several years. Rosser has gone from openly shocking horses to attempting to secretly shock them as SHARK’s cameras documented at the 2012 Reno Rodeo.

At the 2011 and 2012 Reno Rodeo, Rosser personnel were caught on video routinely shocking horses in violation of rodeo rules. The resulting story made national and international news. Video footage of the Flying U personnel shocking animals at the 2012 Reno Rodeo can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-4ROY7Dp4A

At the 2008 Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Posse Rodeo in Turlock, CA, one of Rosser’s bulls was injured tripping over a cowboy dummy in the arena.  Rosser ignored veterinarian advice to immediately humanely euthanize the fatally injured bull and prolonged its suffering which had fractured its left hind leg.

In the same year at Livermore Rodeo three of Rosser’s bulls were seriously injured. One of the injured bulls fractured his leg while spinning in the arena and had to be immediately euthanized. During the same event a team roping horse died in the arena and had to be dragged out on a sled.

At a Rosser rodeo in Anaheim Pond, a mare called Classic Velvet ran full gallop into a heavy metal chute gate after being shocked and was killed. 

SHARK president Steve Hindi states, “Cotton Rosser’s people torment animals. That torment often includes electric shock. Sometimes the torment kills them. Rosser likes to market himself as a cowboy when in fact a real cowboy would never treat his animals so cruelly.”

CONTACT: Steve Hindi  - (630) 640 1889

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