Honoring American values

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1998:

HAWAII––George Peabody,
publisher of the Molokai Advertiser-News
since 1984, charged on November 19 that
“Molokai Ranch Ltd., which owns a third of
this island, has suddenly banned my paper
from all Ranch properties, has gagged staff,
and has excluded all advertising, because of
my editorial about the abuse of animals in
rodeo, calling for a boycott of the Molokoi
Ranch Rodeo on Thanksgiving weekend. I
suggested that their facilities be used instead
for human sports events, like mountain bike
racing and traditional Hawaiian wrestling.”

There was no evident link, but the
Molokai Ranch reaction coincided with
Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association
efforts to bar videotaping at rodeos, ostensibly
to protect TV rights, but closely following
mid-September 1997 Hard Copy b r o a dcasts
of video taken by Steve Hindi of the
Chicago Animal Rights Coalition, showing
bulls being electroshocked to make them
buck in bull-riding contests.