July 22, 2013
Monterey County Weekly

Squids and sharks go together about as well as an improperly maintained British Petroleum oil rig and the Louisiana Gulf Coast. The two should never mix, else wise, bad things might happen, and mostly to the poor squid. But over the weekend, Squid was on the receiving end of a bunch of emails from Shark—and found Squidself had more in common with the great beast than previously thought.

In this case, the shark came in the form of Illinois-based nonprofit SHARK, or SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness. SHARK’s mission, according to its website, is “to nonviolently battle animal abuse whenever and wherever possible.” SHARK founder Steve Hindi was a hunter who had what he describes as a moment of clarity and began opposing all hunting in earnest. In the 1990s, he used a parasail and a bullhorn to disrupt a pigeon hunt at the Woodstock Hunt Club, drawing a six-month jail sentence for contempt in violating a restraining order the club had against him.

Now Hindi and his team arm themselves with video cameras and shoot instances of animal cruelty at circuses, bullfights and “whale jails,” or animal parks. This weekend they turned their lenses on the California Rodeo Salinas. Over the course of three days at the rodeo, they captured three videos of animals being injured. On July 19, a young steer was killed during a roping event after a horse trampled it; the steer was injured about 15 seconds into the video—the remaining 3 minutes and 52 seconds show the animal suffering. (About the worst part—immediately after the injury happened, the steer lay there, its neck bent at an awkward angle and its tail flopping back and forth as it waited. Eventually it was loaded onto a lift attached to a tractor; it died just after it was driven out of the ring.)

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