PETA to Kid Rock: Budweiser Has a Disfigured Horse Named After You

For Immediate Release:
July 17, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

This morning, PETA sent a letter to Kid Rock asking him to take a stand against Budweiser for mutilating the Clydesdale horses it uses as marketing tools—including one they apparently named after him—by removing the beer brand from his Nashville restaurant, Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ’n’ Roll Steakhouse. The group shared with the rocker that Budweiser quietly severs the magnificent 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 that the horses will look a certain way when hitched to a beer wagon.

“Only God knows why Budweiser gets away with such a lowlife thing as cutting off horses’ tailbones,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is painting Kid Rock a picture of the company’s cruelty to Clydesdales in the hope that he’ll make his restaurant a Budweiser-free zone.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—also sent and also sent the rocker a pack of coasters urging imbibers to “Drinkwiser” and “Boycott Budweiser.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Kid Rock follows.

Dear Mr. Ritchie:

We wanted to share the enclosed coasters with you and tell you about a reason for animal lovers to boycott all Budweiser products.

Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ’n’ Roll Steakhouse serves Bud, but you may not know that Anheuser-Busch, the company that produces that beer, is cruelly amputating the tailbones—part of the spine—of its famous Budweiser Clydesdales just so they’ll look a certain way, a mutilation long considered a form of emasculation, something knights did to their enemies’ horses to cut their enemies down to size. Budweiser named one of the horses who has been disfigured in this way “Kid Rock” after you.

The company severs horses’ tailbones or puts tight bands around their tails to cut off blood flow so that the bones will die and fall off. It’s an unnecessary and permanent disfigurement that causes immense pain, affects the horses’ balance, and leaves them without natural protection from flies and other biting insects. Horses also depend on their tails to communicate with others in their herd.

Both the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Veterinary Medical Association condemn severing horses’ tails unless it’s medically necessary. Ten states—as well as many European countries, including Belgium, where Anheuser-Busch is headquartered—have banned this practice. If Budweiser is concerned that tail hair might become entangled in a wagon’s hitch equipment, simple braiding and wrapping of the tails would prevent this possibility.

Will you consider halting sales of Budweiser products at Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ’n’ Roll Steakhouse until Anheuser-Busch commits to stopping the amputation of its Clydesdales’ tailbones?

Thank you for your consideration. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Kathy Guillermo

Senior Vice President