For Immediate Release:
April 3, 2023
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Springfield, Mo. – After learning that the Budweiser Clydesdales, whose tailbones have been cruelly amputated, will soon make appearances around the city, this morning PETA is sending letters to local venues, urging them not to host the mutilated animals. Recipients include two Hy-Vee stores, Branson Landing, Finnegan’s Wake pub, Top Hat Package, and Price Cutter.
As PETA recently revealed in a damning video exposé, Budweiser has been secretly severing horses’ tailbones—either with a scalpel or with a tight band that stops the blood supply to the tail, causing it to die and fall off—just so the Clydesdales will look a certain way when hitched to a beer wagon. Tailbone amputation for cosmetic reasons is condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners and is illegal in 10 states and a number of countries.
“Horses need their tails, and cutting them off causes immense suffering, affects their balance, and removes their first line of defense against biting and disease-spreading insects,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Budweiser disfigures horses to sell beer—and Springfield businesses should tell the King of Tears to stay away.”
The letters are available upon request.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
