Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters

Group alleges numerous animal abuse law violations at pig rassle

Thursday, August 14, 2014 by Jeff Flynt

ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ) - Last weekend's controversial pig wrestling event put on by an Outagamie County church has drawn the ire of an animal rights group.

The group, called SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), showed video Thursday of several dozen alleged animal cruelty violations conducted by St. Patrick Catholic Church in Stephensville.

President and founder Steve Hindi says they found cruelty to animals, animal fighting and child neglect - specifically, juveniles encouraged to wallow in mud contaminated with animal feces and urine. Hindi says, under state law, spectators, organizers and participants could be charged with a misdemeanor or felony.

"I mean, somebody tell me what constitutes a fight if it's not that, and a fight between an animal and a human in Wisconsin is a felony," said Hindi. "We don't like animal abuse as an organization, we don't like corruption, we don't like people who lie and we don't like churches whose mission has been so thoroughly perverted."

Hindi showed a photo (above) that details a July 28, 1995 article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is which then Assistant District Attorney Mitchell Metropulos that the pig wrestling fundraiser, "could violate two state laws." Asked why, if the event was canceled then, it has been allowed to continue every year?

"I have one word for situations like this...its corruption," said Hindi, who explained why he won't be filing a complaint with the Outagamie County Sheriff's Department. "The sheriff was marching in the parade...I think the sheriff is bent. I think it's the state police and the attorney general's office that needs to take a look at this."

Hindi says they're continuing to compile evidence from the video footage shot last weekend, and plans to issue that complaint sometime next week. He also walked with the media across the street from the Hawthorne Suites in Allouez to the Diocese of Green Bay chancery to try and meet with Bishop David Ricken.

Comment: The event, which organizers say brings in about $3,000, has been cancelled in the past. Protests by PETA halted the roundup for two years in the early 90s. Wisconsin’s neighbor state Minnesota has made the practice of pig wrestling a misdemeanor.

The Christian teachings of compassion, respect and integrity are out the window as soon as money comes into the equation. How hypocritical. To force God’s creatures through such a violent and frantic ordeal represents neither careful stewardship nor loving dominion. Moreover, after the hell they went through, the 37 pigs were sent to slaughter the following day.