For Immediate Release:
August 28, 2023
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
St. Louis – In footage from a new PETA investigation, agitated Budweiser Clydesdales uselessly flick the remnants of their amputated tails incessantly as they try in vain to brush away biting, disease-spreading insects under the hot sun at the Anheuser-Busch–owned Warms Springs Ranch in Boonville, Missouri, and Grant’s Farm in St. Louis. This suffering is the result of Budweiser’s shameful practice of severing the horses’ tailbones just so they’ll look a certain way.
“Budweiser has turned the Clydesdales into insect buffets, causing them extreme physical pain and stress,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “They’re unable to fend off barrages of bites, and there is no excuse for it. PETA is calling on Budweiser to back off and let the Clydesdales keep their tails.”
PETA’s initial video exposé detailed how Budweiser painfully amputates the 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. The group’s ensuing campaign against the beer maker has included television ads, protests against the horses’ appearances, and appeals to celebrities and sports teams.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that both the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners condemn cosmetic tailbone amputation. The practice is illegal in 10 states and a number of countries, and equine veterinarians have gone on record calling it “despicable,” disgraceful,” and “abusive.”
PETA 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.
