PETA Tips Off Sheriff to Video of Ron Ens Using a Hammer to Hit a Horse on River of No Return, Wants Network to Pull Episode
For Immediate Release:
October 31, 2019
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Challis, Idaho – This morning, PETA sent an urgent letter calling on the Lemhi County Sheriff’s Office to investigate and, if appropriate, file cruelty-to-animals charges against Ron Ens, who can be seen angrily striking a tethered horse with a hammer on the latest episode of Discovery Channel’s River of No Return. State law defines “cruelty” as the “intentional and malicious infliction of pain.”
In a letter sent to Discovery Channel CEO David M. Zaslav, PETA has urged the network to pull the episode from its lineup and ensure that Ens doesn’t appear in future programming.
“The cruelty of striking a horse with a hammer shouldn’t be tolerated by Idaho’s law enforcement,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA is calling for an investigation of this abuser—and urging the Discovery Channel to pull the episode immediately if it doesn’t want to risk normalizing violence against animals.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist worldview that other animals are disposable.
PETA urges anyone who witnesses cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry to report it by calling the group’s confidential whistleblower hotline at 323-210-2233 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
