Birds used in cockfighting are often given stimulants and hormones and outfitted with sharpened knives to enhance the fight. PETA said the birds suffer terrible deaths, and that the sport is linked to gambling, drugs and other crimes.
ST. LOUIS -- Responding to criticism from an animal-rights group, Anheuser-Busch has agreed to end its association with a festival on the Western Pacific island of Saipan that included cockfighting.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Wednesday it learned this spring that the St. Louis brewery was displaying a large banner with its Budweiser trademark advertising cockfights at a festival on Saipan, a commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Amy Rhodes, PETA's animals in entertainment specialist, said she wrote Anheuser-Busch and posted an "action alert" on PETA's Web site. Soon she received a letter from the company's vice president for international operations, John Hanichak.
An attempt to reach Hanichak through an Auheuser-Busch spokesperson was unsuccessful Wednesday. But in the letter dated July 7, he said the company never sponsored that specific activity.
"Our sponsorship of the overall festival associated our brands with an activity that we do not condone," he wrote. "Therefore we have instructed our distributor to avoid such sponsorships in the future."
Cockfighting is banned in all U.S. states except Louisiana and parts of New Mexico, although it remains popular in many countries and in some U.S. circles.
Birds used in cockfighting are often given stimulants and hormones and outfitted with sharpened knives to enhance the fight. PETA said the birds suffer terrible deaths, and that the sport is linked to gambling, drugs and other crimes.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-peta-anheuser-busch,0,5358263.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines
ST. LOUIS -- Responding to criticism from an animal-rights group, Anheuser-Busch has agreed to end its association with a festival on the Western Pacific island of Saipan that included cockfighting.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Wednesday it learned this spring that the St. Louis brewery was displaying a large banner with its Budweiser trademark advertising cockfights at a festival on Saipan, a commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Amy Rhodes, PETA's animals in entertainment specialist, said she wrote Anheuser-Busch and posted an "action alert" on PETA's Web site. Soon she received a letter from the company's vice president for international operations, John Hanichak.
An attempt to reach Hanichak through an Auheuser-Busch spokesperson was unsuccessful Wednesday. But in the letter dated July 7, he said the company never sponsored that specific activity.
"Our sponsorship of the overall festival associated our brands with an activity that we do not condone," he wrote. "Therefore we have instructed our distributor to avoid such sponsorships in the future."
Cockfighting is banned in all U.S. states except Louisiana and parts of New Mexico, although it remains popular in many countries and in some U.S. circles.
Birds used in cockfighting are often given stimulants and hormones and outfitted with sharpened knives to enhance the fight. PETA said the birds suffer terrible deaths, and that the sport is linked to gambling, drugs and other crimes.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-peta-anheuser-busch,0,5358263.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines
