Like many children, Steve Hindi grew up in a family that compartmentalized animals—some animals we kill for sport, some animals we kill for food, and some animals we love and adore. While doting on pets and rescuing strays, the family also hunted and fished. Steve and his brother were raised to believe fish had no feelings, and Steve not only fished for food and for sport, but he actually took pleasure in torturing them. In his essay called, “I Was a Fish Killer” (read it on page 26), Steve tells his rather detailed and gruesome story of how he grew up, as he says, “killing with abandon” for 30 years, even cruelly killing a 200-pound shark for a trophy.
After decades of hunting and fishing, things began to change when, driving to his boat in 1989, Steve stopped at a pigeon shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania. Finding it disturbing and unethical, upset at children taking part in the slaughter, he vowed to put a stop to the cruelty. Within a year, in a complete turnaround, he left all blood sports behind and began a life of animal rescue instead of animal abuse.
In 1993, Steve founded SHARK (which stands for SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness). SHARK is a non-profit organization, relying completely on support from donors and grants. Steve and the SHARK team of investigators dedicate their lives to ending the abuse of all animals. Using technology as their weapon of choice, SHARK’s mission is to record animal abuse and “disseminate data.” Using cameras, drones, and the power of the internet, SHARK exposes the cruelty, working to shut down rodeos, bullfighting, pigeon shoots, turkey shoots, hunting, circuses, zoos, and any other abuse of animals. Video and photographic documentation is supplied to the media, law enforcement, government agencies, the courts, and so on.
To reach the public, SHARK has a very successful, regularly updated, YouTube Channel that receives about 50,000 views from 196 countries every day. There are over 750 videos exposing animal cruelty and educating the public on animal issues. In total: more than 90 million views. Additionally, SHARK uses the media to bring animal abuse out in the open with thousands of stories in newspapers, radio programs, film documentaries, and television news shows. Its work has appeared in major news outlets such as The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, Hard Copy, and 20/20, to name a few.
SHARK also utilizes its “TIGER TRUCK,” a four-screened mobile video truck with which it educates people, corporations, and government officials. By parking this mobile billboard and running videos of animal cruelty in the meat industry, rodeos, bullfighting, circuses, and more, SHARK has had tremendous success reaching and mobilizing people with graphic images it may never have otherwise seen.
I recently sat down with Steve for a lengthy conversation about SHARK’s mission, successes, obstacles, and current and future battles.
Just watching the videos on SHARK’s YouTube channel is enough to turn your stomach. I asked Steve how he can do it, day in and day out, witnessing the horrors, fighting the fight. He answered, “People ask me why I don’t get burned out. For a long while, I didn’t know the answer. But really what it is is that I really never stopped hunting. It’s just that I put down the gun, put down the rods and harpoons and all that stuff. And I picked up the high-powered camera, picked up the drone, and picked up all the other tools of the trade and I’m still hunting. I’m just hunting the animal abusers. I’m documenting what they do and exposing it.”
He says that instead of all the animal trophies that once decorated his walls, he now has newspaper headlines, like the New York Times article about how SHARK forced Pepsi-Cola out of the bullring. These are his new and much more meaningful trophies.
Drones are an integral part of SHARK strategy. SHARK started using drones in 2009. In 2013, Steve had a brief but important appearance in an episode of PBS’s NOVA called, “Rise of the Drones.” Steve was featured using a SHARK drone to document and expose animal cruelty (Steve appears at 44:30).
Steve said, “Drone use is something that animal protectors should be heavily invested in. The concept of being able to put an eye in the sky literally a mile-plus away from you and then be able to see farther than that is so vital.” Of course, animal abusers have tried to shoot the drones down. Knowing this, I asked Steve if there are restrictions on drone use.
“There are restrictions, more now than there used to be,” he said. “And there will probably be more in the future. There are practical restrictions, like not flying around airports. And there are certain states, notably Texas and North Carolina, both heavily involved in animal use and abuse industries, that have added restrictions on drone use. For the most part, we are able to do the things we need to do.”
Because of COVID-19, many animal entertainment (read that, abuse) events have been shut down as crowd gathering is not allowed. Rodeos, bullfighting, and other such venues are unable to operate. This has allowed SHARK to focus extra time and attention this year on cockfighting, as these abusers don’t adhere to the COVID no-crowd rules. SHARK started on the front lines in June, but that was nearing the end of the season (roosters molt from July through December and don’t fight). So basically, this past December and January, SHARK put all of its effort into investigating cockfighting and succeeded, in just weeks, in shutting down over a dozen arenas in Kentucky and Ohio. Steve reminds me that this is only the tip of the iceberg, that there are hundreds, maybe thousands more. Everywhere. The biggest problem: the police are not on his side.
“I really never stopped hunting. It’s just that I put down the gun, put down the rods and harpoons and all that stuff. And I picked up the high-powered camera…”
I thought of how I had watched and listened to Wayne Hsiung of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and his experiences with open rescue on factory farms in California. I mentioned to Steve how Wayne would cite the law, California Penal Code 597, which allows for the rescue of any animal suffering abuse or neglect. Wayne would bring copies of the law, show it to law enforcement, explain that the law has no exception for farmed animals, and that DxE was absolutely legally right to rescue abused and neglected farmed animals to give them veterinary care. But every time, every single time, the police sided with the farmers and arrested DxE members for doing what the law instructs. I asked Steve if this was his experience, as well, cops siding with the abusers.
“Cockfighting was made illegal in the last state over 12 years ago,” Steve said. “It is illegal everywhere according to state law and according to federal law. Nevertheless, cockfighting is as big as it ever was, maybe bigger than it was before it was illegal. The only reason for this is that the police are not doing their jobs in the places where cockfighting is ongoing. That is the only reason. The sheriffs know.”
Sadly, he goes on to say, “Our cameras have caught uniformed sheriff’s deputies in cockfight arenas, not enforcing the law, but enjoying as spectators. We have shown that law enforcement personnel are personally raising and fighting roosters. Cockfighting would not exist but for law enforcement allowing it and even protecting it.” Steve and his team have found social media pages where law enforcement officers boasted about their cockfighting, proudly posting photos of themselves and their roosters.
Steve is upset, as he should be, because cockfighting became illegal in all 50 United States and its territories over a decade ago. One of the things people say activists need to do is get the laws changed. And the law did change. Yet, animals are still being abused and killed. We have to keep on it, keep exposing it. Just because there is a law does not mean it is being followed. As Steve says, “We cannot be quick to declare victory and go home; we must not shy away from the duty that we all have. If law enforcement doesn’t do the job, it falls on us.”
Besides the outright animal abuse, cockfighting is a conduit for many other illegal operations, such as drug abuse, child abuse, prostitution, gangs, and illegal weapons. Additionally, cockfights advertise for other animal abuses like rodeos and dog fights. Steve speaks very powerfully about the importance of knocking out cockfighting and the necessity for animal protectors to band together to get rid of these illegal operations. “I invite every single animal protection organization, large or small, to join the effort to stomp out, to crush, cockfighting.”
SHARK has launched a major campaign called Crush Cockfighting campaign site, as well as the latest investigation videos and a tip line—(630) 385-0244—and email for any information on cockfights. SHARK will investigate any tips. At the end of this article, you can find a list of the cockfighting operations SHARK has shut down to date. There are other animal welfare groups standing with SHARK in this campaign, including Humane Farming Association, Last Chance for Animals, United Poultry Concerns, and Kentuckians Against Cockfighting.
On January 3, 2021, two investigators from SHARK drove to a suspected illegal cockfighting operation in Lawrence County, Ohio. Soon after arriving, SHARK President Steve Hindi was attacked by one of the animal abusers. He suffered multiple injuries, including a head injury requiring six staples and a broken rib. Another team member was chased by cockfighters. They rammed his car several times, sending it into a ditch and totaling it. These were two attempts of murder. SHARK is demanding a full investigation and maximum prosecution of all appropriate charges.
It is not the first time Steve and his investigators have been attacked. He said he knows that these people live in violence, that they are acting out, threatening, screaming, going after them, because SHARK is having an effect. He takes it as a good sign that they are upset and scared. Steve says animal abusers think they are scaring SHARK, but he and his team of investigators will not be deterred.
I asked Steve if he feared he might actually get killed someday doing this work. He said, “It could happen. I didn’t expect to make it this far. Every day is a bonus. I wouldn’t say we are fearless. When someone points a gun at you—that is an interesting feeling. It changes your thoughts. But everyone is going to die. What is more important than how long you live is how you live. Get something done while you are around.”
In the case of the above incident, regardless of previously being threatened and attacked, SHARK did go back again to try to shut down this location. Using two teams, one at the site where the cockfight was to be held, and one team at the Sheriff’s office, SHARK did manage, after several hours and an emergency action alert for phone calls to the Sheriff’s office (since they would not go out to the sight even with proof the cockfight was going to happen), SHARK investigators finally got an on-duty commander to visit the site personally. However, in the time it took to get this done, the cockfighters got wind of the plan and cancelled the fight.
As SHARK put it in its mailing about this victory: “During the almost three hours between our first alerting the Sheriff’s office, and the arrival of the new on-duty commander, the cockfighters got word of our efforts. They shut down and fled, almost certainly before the fighting even started. Given that shutting down cruel cockfights and keeping birds from being killed is our main goal, this is a major victory. As for the cockfighters, they lost a lot of money. Unfortunately, there were no arrests, because they had fled long before police arrived. We obviously need to expose the corruption within the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. That said, we believe that not everyone in the Sheriff’s office is corrupt, so SHARK president Steve Hindi made a video right in the Sheriff’s office asking the good officers to contact us, anonymously if needed, with information that may help our investigation.”
SHARK will not stand down and will not give up doing whatever it takes. Once it is investigating animal cruelty, it doesn’t leave until it has won. Steve describes his investigators as extremely intelligent, dedicated, and stubborn. He says, “Even if we have to end careers, exposing corrupt cops, we’ll do it.”
The list of SHARK successes is quite extensive. Steve and SHARK have exposed, reduced, or stopped altogether, the abuse of animals with years of solid investigative work, documentation, and personal risk. They’ve battled major animal entertainment organizations, law enforcement, and government officials. In many cases, SHARK used its documentation to educate celebrity or corporate sponsorship of animal events to the cruelty they supported with their names, and they have backed out of sponsorship.
Reading over his remarkable achievements, I asked Steve which of the SHARK victories was the most meaningful to him. He answered without hesitation. “My favorite victory for SHARK was when we beat Senator Jim Inhofe in his own state. Jim Inhofe was holding this annual political fundraiser pigeon shoot. It was a horrific affair of death and suffering, prolonged suffering. In Oklahoma, Inhofe is like the emperor—you can’t get any help at all—from local, from county, from the state; the FBI wouldn’t do a thing. They had guns around us, they shot down one of our drones. Nobody would help.”
SHARK invited the big groups to help, but all it got was small grassroots people. Yet it worked hard, got documentation, and when it got out there, the people of Oklahoma were disgusted by what they saw. It took three years, but it proved that if everyone could get together—fight together—so much could get accomplished.
Steve believes there is just too much fragmentation with animal protection groups that only want to work on their own pet issues instead of having all groups join and tackle the issues together. “There are a lot of groups that are not sincere. They’ve become fundraising machines,” Steve said. “We need to be a cohesive force and, until we do that, we will accomplish a tiny fraction of what is possible.”
Steve knows a lot of people are unhappy with SHARK, especially with him because he is quite critical about the inadequacies of the animal protection movement. “I am. I am. I’m extremely critical at this point in this movement. But it is a criticism born of the desire to see more done for animals. I am frustrated. I am terribly, terribly frustrated at a movement that has millions of dollars coming in every year, not using technology, not having the competence and the energy and the drive to get the job done for animals. Their very lives depend on what we do or do not do.”
Especially frustrating for Steve are the big groups that raise money under false pretense. For example, Steve has been contacted by big groups who want to use SHARK photos. But what happens is they use the documentation in their mailers and advertising to raise money for their group when they are not even involved in the issue. Another frustrating example for Steve are groups that raise money—such as purchasing a drone fleet—and then those drones never get purchased. This is defrauding donors and shorting the animals. Steve doesn’t understand why they get away with it, why other groups don’t call them out on it, why the bad seeds in the movement are still operating when the animals are losing out.
Steve explains that as a rule, the bigger the group—the more money they bring in—the less they are actually doing. Big animal groups have become big business—doing business the American way, which is put out a product, market it, bring in as much money as possible. The smaller groups are “busting their tails doing even more with less.”
“Half a billion dollars gets put into animal protection every year,” Steve said. “There is a war, a compassionate war, that must be fought every single day for animals or they will die in even more millions and billions than is happening now. But instead of funding the army, the money is being siphoned off and siphoned off and it is not going where it needs to go, and we are losing this war.
“But for those of us who are still in this fight for real, who want so desperately, who lose sleep at night thinking about what goes on with animals, you have to know that your money is being spent on the right things.” Steve would like to see pockets of people all over the country documenting, showing it to people, making a difference everywhere. He says, “Anybody that wants to join us—to see how we operate—let us know. You can freeze with us [in the winter], you can bake with us in the summer, we will do whatever we have to do, and you can join us.”
SHARK has six people, including Steve. They try to cover multiple issues nationwide and beyond, raising barely enough money to keep people in the equipment they need to do the job. He said, “There is a clique out there, there’s a political machine. We’ve gone against them. And, in large part, been ostracized. We can bust our tails to beat Inhofe. It was a tremendous victory for animal protection and shows what can be done. Anybody could have done it. It wasn’t because it was SHARK. Anybody could have done it if they made the effort.
“It is the same thing with cockfighting and everything else. We don’t have magical powers. We don’t have special authority. What we have is determination. We’ve trained ourselves and it is just a matter of go out and do it. Believe me—if I can become a drone pilot anyone can become a drone pilot. You don’t have to depend on big groups, you don’t have to depend on SHARK. You can do it yourself. But if you are not going to do it yourself, if you’re going to send money, please find out where the money is going.”
SHARK has had a lot of success going after corporate sponsorship. In many cases, the companies do not understand the realm of abuse they sponsor with their advertising, but once Steve uses the documentation he has gathered from investigating events to show them, the sponsors will often pull out. SHARK has had wins with companies like Geico Insurance, Pepsi-Cola, AT&T/Cingular Wireless, Starbucks, Campbell’s Soup, and Trader Joe’s, among others. I asked Steve what corporate sponsor is the most surprising, that is, which one knows what abuses goes on, but still wants its name and reputation attached to animal cruelty.
Steve was very quick to answer. “Coca-Cola.” And went on to give a detailed description of why Coca-Cola is not a company that animal protectors should support. “Coca-Cola is a disgusting company. Coca-Cola could have a tremendous effect on, for instance, the rodeo industry. It’s a major sponsor of rodeos. We have shown it so much documentation, so much footage of the abuse at rodeos—steer-busting, calf-roping, the bucking events—but whatever Coke has to do to get its name out there, it’s willing to do.” He went on, “Then, of course, comes Christmas and the white-washing of Coke with the polar bears. Coke spends lots of money whitewashing its image while creating devastating environmental damage, especially in third world countries where it’s taking the water sources.” Additionally, Coke is one of the world’s biggest plastic polluters.
Steve continued, “I would encourage animal activists—if you won’t wear fur, if you won’t eat meat—don’t drink Coke products. They are every bit as destructive and cruel to animals as any use/abuse industry. It is an awful company.
“Dodge is another one. Dodge is a major sponsor of rodeos. It doesn’t matter how much evidence we bring up. Just imagine the affect these companies could have on the rodeo industry if they pulled their support. But they don’t care. If we care, we need to stop buying their products.”
Steve believes the movement starts with individuals, then moves to groups. He is happy so many people are becoming vegan. But are they taking action? Abusers are not going to stop abusing unless we stop them. For an example of what he means, he says there are so many live pigeon shoots in and around Pittsburg, a place that is also known for being a vegan hub. Why are the vegans not showing up for protests at the pigeon shoots? He says, “As a movement we are not doing what we need to do. We have to look at ourselves.
“The people who want to hurt animals want to do that more than we want to save them.” He doesn’t mean that any person or group is not passionate about saving animals, but collectively, animal abusers fight harder to abuse animals than we in the movement do to protect them. Steve explains using the example of a pigeon shoot.
“It’s hard to get activists to show up. The more protesters that do show up, the more abusers that show up. You have to keep at it until they know you aren’t going away.” It takes getting to the events and proving you are serious. “If you care, you have to go to the front lines—energetically and repeatedly. Call elected officials and law enforcement. Demand change. We need more people who will say, ‘I’ve only got so much time on this planet and I’m going to spend that time helping animals.’”
Steve talks about the feeling you get when you know you have succeeded. “One thing I’d like to tell everybody is the victories we have, the feeling we SHARK people have, you can only have by having done what we’ve done. A multi-billionaire cannot buy the satisfaction we have in life. All their money can’t buy that. Only being on the front lines, saving animals, can get you the feeling it gives you. And it is a fantastic feeling. I can be afraid, but knowing the lives that we’ve saved makes it worth it. If I go today, it was a life worth living.”
Cockfights and canned hunts are happening everywhere. “I don’t care where you live, they’re everywhere, so go get involved or get involved with someone else involved and really make a difference, really take action.”
I talked with Steve about how being on the front lines might be more than some can take as it is so difficult to see the things that animal protectors have to see: the images investigators must witness to capture on film. “You cannot unsee,” Steve said, “but it is the seeing it that makes it so devastatingly real and makes you say, ‘I don’t care what I have to do or what I have to endure, I will not blanche from this. I will go forward.’ How are you going to know if you don’t look? You might have to see things that are horrible, but this is what you have to do to be the person to save the animals. Do this. Your will lose a little bit of your soul. But what is left is you’ll be a stronger person. You will have meaning in your life. You won’t be fearful. You will be powerful—a powerful agent of change. I’m not saying you won’t be haunted. You will be. But you will also have the balance of having saved lives.”
“Only being on the front lines, saving animals, can get you the feeling it gives you. And it is a fantastic feeling. I can be afraid, but knowing the lives that we’ve saved makes it worth it. If I go today, it was a life worth living.”
Find more information
SHARK tip line: 630-385-0244
Other animal welfare groups standing with SHARK in its campaigns:
Kentuckians Against Cockfighting
Below are just a couple of SHARK’s victories. For more detailed information about any of these individual issues, see the list on SHARK’s website.
• Rodeo Animal Abuse: Since 1993, SHARK has stood almost alone in exposing the horrific animal abuse, countless lies, and corruption of rodeos in general and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in particular. SHARK has forced a multitude of important changes to eliminate some of the animal suffering at rodeos across America.
• U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe Forced to Abandon Live Pigeon Shoots After Cruelty Exposed: In September 2017, Oklahoma’s senior U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe did NOT hold his annual live pigeon shoot. The cancellation followed a three-year SHARK campaign which exposed Inhofe for shooting pigeon that were hand-launched into the air to be shot by Inhofe and his supporters. After the initial 2014 effort, which featured a SHARK undercover investigator infiltrating the Inhofe affair, SHARK exposed Inhofe for illegally using federal property for his fundraiser, as well as using publicly paid personnel. In 2015, a member of Inhofe’s group used a rifle to shoot a SHARK camera-equipped drone. In 2016, three SHARK investigators went back to the shoot site and documented hundreds of dead victims, as well as rescuing 29 live victims. Local, county, and state police all refused to do anything about Inhofe’s numerous violations of cruelty law, aviation law, traffic violations or any other infractions. The FBI similarly refused to do anything even after it was clear that Oklahoma law enforcement was completely impotent in the face of Inhofe’s power and corruption.
