SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness)

Just months after Korean Air agreed to stop transporting fighting birds from the U.S. to the Philippines, investigators uncovered a new loophole.

Instead of flying directly to Manila, traffickers are now shipping fighting birds on Korean Air flights to Vietnam, where they're transferred to another airline for the final leg to the Philippines.

Changing the route doesn't change the crime.

The Center for a Humane Economy is calling on Korean Air to permanently prohibit shipments of mature gamefowl from the United States to any destination in Asia.

Cockfighters adapted. Now Korean Air must finish the job.

Ogle County's planning and zoning committee in Illinois has unanimously voted to revoke the special use permit of Rancho La Esperanza, a rodeo outside Rochelle accused of practising steer tailing, an event in which horse riders pull bulls by the tail, often ripping skin from bone.

Animal rights organisation SHARK has been filming the rodeo from drones since April 2022, documenting the practice. Activists have been pushing for county action for years, with SHARK president Steve Hindi saying the rodeo should have been shut down four or five years ago.

The committee's vote was triggered not by the animal cruelty concerns but by the rodeo's failure to notify deputies of events 48 hours in advance as required by its permit conditions.

Advocates argue this falls short of what the situation demands and are pushing for steer tailing to be explicitly banned in county ordinances.

The full county board will vote on the permit's cancellation at a meeting scheduled for June 16.