For the second time in the last year, Ludington City Council finds itself on the bad side of an animal rights group .  Last fall, it was for conducting a deer cull on elementary school grounds with Friends of Animals taking up arms against the effort, and eventually noting the victory by a local group stopping that cull early this year.

In a news release revealed yesterday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the largest animal rights organization in the world with more than 9 million members and supporters globally, took issue with Ludington using the Budweiser Clydesdale horses in their sesquicentennial celebration this summer.  Budweiser, who have recently suffered major backlash from using Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesman for their Bud Light brand, have used the signature horse breed to advertise their product for many decades, showcasing them at many celebrations such as Scottville's centennial celebration back in 1989, Ludington had them around in 2012. 

The controversy hinges on the company's practice of removing the horse's tailbones in order to better represent their product, as stated in the release:

For Immediate Release:
May 30, 2023

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Ludington, Mich. – After learning that the Budweiser Clydesdales, whose tailbones have been cruelly amputated, are scheduled to make appearances next week in Ludington, PETA sent letters today to the Ludington City Council urging it not to host the disfigured animals. PETA has also written to the Manistee City Council about similar events scheduled in Manistee.

As PETA recently revealed in a damning video exposé, Budweiser has been secretly severing 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—just so the Clydesdales will look a certain way when hitched to a beer wagon. Tailbone amputation for cosmetic reasons is condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners and is illegal in 10 states and a number of countries.

“Horses need their tails, and cutting them off causes immense suffering, affects their balance, and removes their first line of defense against biting and disease-spreading insects,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Budweiser disfigures horses to sell beer—and all of Michigan should tell the King of Tears to stay away.”

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.

It is unknown at this point whether this will be addressed in any way at tonight's 'committee of the whole meeting' of that body at 6 PM in the city hall, scheduled to discuss the possibility of adding parking fees at Stearns Beach.  

As of now, the Clydesdales are scheduled to appear three times in the Ludington area over three days in the Love Ludington weekend celebrating the city's 150th year, after a day in Manistee:

• 6-7 p.m. Friday, June 9, at the Love Ludington Street Party in downtown Ludington.
• 5-7 p.m. Saturday, June 10, at Loomis Street Boat Launch in Ludington.
• 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at Mason County Fairgrounds near Ludington.