SHARK files charges against Philadelphia Gun Club & exposes National College Rodeo Finals horse shocking

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

CASPER, PHILADELPHIA– Seeming to be in two distant places
at the same time, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK) founder
Steve Hindi on June 17, 2010 pressed a criminal case against the
Philadelphia Gun Club in Bensalem, Pennsyl-vania, for alleged
cruelty to a pigeon during a February 2010 pigeon shoot, and posted
video clips to YouTube showing bucking horses being shocked that very
day at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming.
Both Hindi’s case against the Philadelphia Gun Club and the
College National Finals rodeo video received extensive local news
coverage–and upstaged his unveiling, two days earlier, of a drone
helicopter capable of documenting events such as pigeon shoots and
rodeos that exclude cameras from the spectator areas. (See page 12.)

Though Hindi is the complainant in the Philadelphia Gun Club
case, and the subject of the complaint is a pigeon he retrieved,
the case was actually filed by Pennsylvania Legislative Animal
Network humane officer Johnna Seeton. Seeton has sought
unsuccessfully to prosecute pigeon shoots in the past in a variety of
Pennsylvania jurisdictions where there are still held. A July 1999
Pennsylvania Supreme court verdict that pigeon shoot promoters and
participants could be charged with cruelty halted the Labor Day
pigeon shoot held for 65 years in Hegins, but other courts have held
that pigeon shoots do not violate the Pennsylvania state anti-cruelty
law if “reasonable efforts” are made to prevent and minimize the
resultant animal suffering.
Hindi and Seeton contend that “reasonable efforts” were not
made on behalf of the pigeon Hindi named Roberta. Finding her on
February 10, 2010 with shotgun injuries to one wing and a broken
leg, Hindi nursed her back to health.
Pennsylvania is believed to be the last state where pigeon
shoots are still held.
Casper Star-Tribune staff writer Tom Morton described in
detail the SHARK video clips from the College National Rodeo Finals,
and extensively quoted Hindi, as well as rodeo spokespersons who
contended that horses are shocked only if they are known to stall in
the starting chute, rather than rushing out into the ring. This is
claimed to be necessary for safety reasons. “If a horse is a ‘known
chute-staller,'” Hindi responded, “the horse should not be used in
a rodeo. When a horse stalls,” Hindi added, “the horse doesn’t
explode–the horse doesn’t do anything.”
“Two years ago,” Morton recalled, “Hindi and SHARK
applauded Cheyenne Frontier Days for tightening its rules on the use
of hand-held electric shock devices on horses after SHARK posted
similar videos on YouTube.”
“The stock contractor of record for the 2010 College National
Finals Rodeo,” Hindi mentioned, “is Harry Vold. SHARK
investigators have repeatedly caught animals being secretly shocked
at Vold’s rodeos, including in Cheyenne, Dodge City, and Kansas
City.”