PETA, Euro Orgs Pen Letter to Budweiser to Call Out Cruel Tail Severing
More than a dozen animal protection organizations across Europe have joined PETA in demanding that Anheuser-Busch InBev—the Belgian company that produces Budweiser beer—stop amputating the tailbones of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
Our letter to Anheuser-Busch is also signed by GAIA, the Dyrenes Alliance, ENPA , Paris Animaux Zoopolis, Asociación Defensa Derechos Animal, Fondation Brigitte Bardot, Ippothesis Panhellenic Equine Welfare Society, AnimaNaturalis Internacional, FAADA, and PETA entities in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K. It makes the crucial point that this unnecessary procedure—which involves severing the spine—is a permanent disfigurementthat causes lifelong pain, affects horses’ balance, and leaves them without natural protection from flies and other biting insects. Horses also depend on their tails to communicate with herdmates, and removing all or part of their tailbones interferes with this important function.
PETA just released new video footage from Warm Springs Ranch and Grant’s Farm, both in Missouri and owned by Anheuser-Busch, showing agitated Budweiser Clydesdales uselessly flicking the remnants of their amputated tails incessantly as they try in vain to brush away biting, disease-spreading insects under the hot sun.
Belgium outlawed the amputation of horses’ tails in 2001, and a study commissioned by that country’s minister of public health concluded that these animals derive no benefit from the procedure and that there’s no need to sever their tailbones unless it’s medically necessary. Other European countries have followed suit and completely banned the practice, as have 10 U.S. states. Veterinary organizations, including in the U.S., also condemn this disfiguration. Tail braiding and wrapping would be sufficient to protect the Clydesdales’ tails from becoming entangled in wagon hitch equipment.
Tell Budweiser to Stop Disfiguring Horses
You can speak up for the Clydesdales by letting Budweiser know that you won’t be buying its beer until it ends its cruel practice of tail docking. Click the button below for more ways to take action:
