At the famous Cowtown Rodeo in New Jersey, one of the horses died in the middle of a live performance!
That’s awful!! Poor horsie├óΓé¼┬ª
What’s even worse is the horse, Duke, might have died because of abuse!!
Animal rights activists from SHARK (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness) allege that the horse was secretly being shocked with a cattle-prod device before he was released from his gate.
The whole point of the shocks would be to get him to go buck wild, and perform better.
Cowtown disagrees, saying that Duke died from an “aneurysm of his aorta blood vessel.”
Cowtown said:
“Our vet has assured us that this had nothing to do with the rodeo event and it is a natural (although rare) occurrence to have a horse pass from this reason.”
The owner of Cowtown, Grant Harris, also owned Duke, so he said:
“I am going to be talking to everybody who’s been in contact with the horse to find out if Duke was mistreated.”
SHARK is planning on contacting the SPCA to ask that animal cruelty charges be brought down on Cowtown.
We just feel so bad for Duke and hope that justice is served!
Check out the video (above) to see Duke’s final moments but BEWARE it contains the graphic death of a once living horse.