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Long list of animal-welfare skirmishes for Elburn man

Protesting the sale of puppies from the back of a pickup truck is the latest in a long list of efforts to protect animals that Steve Hindi of Elburn has taken.

The man who once hunted sharks for sport has targeted rodeos, horse slaughterhouses, geese-hunting, circuses and more since founding Showing Animals Respect and Kindness in the early 1990s.

He’s sued and been sued. He’s also been sentenced to jail.

Hindi protested the Wauconda Chamber of Commerce’s annual rodeo.

He sued the Lake County sheriff in state court for false arrest over one protest, and sued in federal court alleging that police had violated his First Amendment right to free speech.

He was sentenced to six months in jail in McHenry County for contempt of court, related to a case in which he was accused of interfering with a goose hunt at a private hunting club. Hindi had flown over the club in an ultralight, causing the geese to scatter, and was convicted of interfering with a hunt and harassing wildlife.

He returned to the club to protest again, by sounding a siren and speaking over a megaphone.

Once he shocked himself with an electric cattle prod at a Kane County Board meeting, to show its effects, as he tried to get the board to ban rodeos at the annual county fair.

He convinced St. Charles officials to strengthen its animal-cruelty law to prohibit such shocking unless it could be shown the animal was a danger to humans, and provided video that led police to charge the operator of the county fair rodeo with disobeying the law.

He challenged DuPage County Forest Preserve officials who said they didn’t use rocket nets to trap deer for culling, presenting video to the contrary.

Hindi has driven a van that displayed videos of how animals are treated at bullfights.

He’s protested a kangaroo boxing match in St. Charles, rescued dogs from a filthy house in Cary, spoke to state legislators when horse slaughterhouses were being considered, picketed over deaths of creatures at the Shedd Aquarium.

He was sued by organizers of the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Wyoming after musical performers Matchbox 20 and Carrie Underwood canceled concerts after watching Hindi’s videos of rodeos.

And he claimed credit for getting Pepsi to stop advertising at arenas in Mexico where bullfighting is conducted.

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