ST. LOUIS – Animal activist organization PETA is planning a protest Wednesday outside the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis over treatment of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
The protest is planned for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at 1200 Lynch Street. It follows a protest from Opening Day in which PETA flew a banner to address the same concerns.
According to a news release from PETA, a group of protestors plans to wear “giant realistic horse masks” and pass out 90 cans of free beer. The beer cans will be ones that specifically aren’t Anheuser-Busch brands, rather a St. Louis-based White Ale, according to the company.
The protests come as PETA accused Budweiser of “secretly severing the Clydesdales’ tailbones” in a video released earlier this year. PETA is calling on Budweiser to “to modernize and end” such a practice.
PETA claims staffers at Warm Springs Ranch, the breeding facility for the Budweiser Clydesdales, remove the tails off the animals shortly after they’re born, either by cutting them off or by tying a tight band around the tail to cut off the blood supply. PETA says this is so the horses all look a certain way when hitched to the beer wagon.
The Clydesdales have now been part of the Budweiser experience for 90 years.