Planned Local Appearance of Mutilated Clydesdales Sparks Objection From PETA

For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2023

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Although tailbone amputation for cosmetic reasons is condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association and is illegal in 10 states and a number of countries, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, who have been subjected to this cruel procedure, are scheduled to appear at the North Dakota Horse Park on July 15. This morning, PETA sent a letter to the park’s general manager, Hugh Drexler, urging him to reconsider hosting the horses until Anheuser-Busch (which owns Budweiser) commits to ending the mutilations, which prevent horses from engaging in natural activities like swatting away disease-carrying flies and using their tails to communicate.

As PETA’s damning video exposé shows, Budweiser has been quietly severing 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—so that the horses will look a certain way when hitched to a beer wagon.

“Budweiser presents the Clydesdales as symbols of traditional American values, but harming horses is the antithesis of what Americans hold dear,” writes PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “We hope you will speak with Anheuser-Busch executives and urge them to discontinue tailbone severing and, in the meantime, cancel the upcoming scheduled appearance.”

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.