January 12, 2007

Hello, Friends –

2007 is off to a busy start. Although RMAD is strategizing and preparing for the upcoming year, we’re staying active with our core programs.

This week was emblematic of our work, as activists were on the streets telling the stock show and rodeo animals’ side of the story, then assisting with concerns over a large colony imperiled by the dumping of snow on their burrows.

RMAD is focusing its 2007 Stock Show efforts on leafletting and promoting StockShowInfo.com, our new website dedicated to informing the public about the reality of the animals’ lives. RMAD activist Ann Swissdorf has been busy distributing information on Denver’s 16 th St. Mall and rep orts that it has been a highly successful venture.

RMAD was asked for its perspective on the Stock Show for a recent Denver Post article. An excerpt:

But David Crawford, executive director of Boulder-based Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, said there is no way to independently determine what is happening to the animals at the stock show and rodeos.

"We all know about 'lies ... and statistics,"' Crawford said. "This sort of self- reporting offers little comfort when it's done by an industry group."

The statistics also do not account for mental anguish animal suffer when they are penned, trucked and "forced into confrontation" to compete, Crawford said.