'Backyard rodeos' spark steer safety concerns ^⁠5%

8/7/2026, 6:00:00 AM

Topics: Animal Cruelty, Funeral Home Negligence, Immigration Enforcement, Aquarium Exhibits, Charity Events, Music Festivals

Keywords: Rodeo, Steer Tailing, Animal Abuse, Funeral Home, Decomposing Bodies, Ice, Tom Dart, Shedd Aquarium, Beluga Whales, Chicago Ducky Derby, Special Olympics Illinois, Jordy, Northalsted Market Days

BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Appeal to Emotion, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 19.9% saturation with 369 hits. Analysis detected 1,880 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,852 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 12.6% and a BS Rank of ⁠5% (28,057 of 29,351 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 95.60% of the article peer group.

Confidence50%

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1,852 words

A rodeo rider in McHenry County holds a steer’s tail after ripping it from the animal last year.

Showing Animals Respect and Kindness

‘Backyard rodeos’ under fire, with steers knocked down, sometimes stripped of their tails

Reporting by Robert Herguth

Rodeo POV : A man on horseback in a corral rides alongside a fleeing steer while reaching for the animal's tail, which he skillfully wraps around his right cowboy boot while maintaining a grip on the appendage.

The steer twists and tumbles to the dirt.

The rider — part of a so-called backyard rodeo in the far northwest suburbs last summer — gallops off, holding part of the steer's tail, which was ripped free.

At issue : The injury is common at these types of events, according to animal rights activists who have been trying to stop what's known as steer tailing, saying it amounts to animal abuse that's illegal under state law, though seldom enforced.

Crackdown resistance : There has been resistance to cracking down on steer tailing, called "coleadero" in Spanish, because of its place in Mexican rodeo culture dating back centuries.

Sen.

Li Arellano Jr.

(R-Dixon), who cosponsored a stalled proposal to ban steer-tailing, says its "injury rate is higher than almost any other rodeo event," and he knows of no reputable U.S. rodeo organization that promotes steer tailing.

Arellano likens steer-tailing "to cockfighting and bullfighting" and says, "The day for coleadero is over."

Chicago police investigate South Chicago Chapel after investigators found dozens of decomposing bodies there Thursday.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

57 decomposing bodies discovered at Far South Side funeral home

Reporting by Violet Miller and Cindy Hernandez

Bodies discovered : Fifty-seven decomposing bodies were found Thursday at South Chicago Chapel, a funeral home in South Deering, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A funeral was in progress when police, acting on a tip, showed up.

Neighbors have complained of horrible smells and questioned the late hours staff seemed to be working at the funeral home.

Police report : Officers were met by funeral director Clark Morgan, who accompanied them on a walk-through of the building, where police found the bodies in various areas of the home, according to the police report.

At some point, officers left the building, and when they tried to re-enter, Morgan locked them out and left.

Officers called the fire department to get in again.

Key context : The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended the license of the registered funeral director Johanna Morgan.

Her husband previously held a funeral director and embalmer intern license, which was revoked in 2024, according to the department.

Identifying loved ones : The Cook County medical examiner's office said it's trying to identify the remains and connect with possible descendants of the deceased.

One person came to the scene Thursday night asking police whether her mother's remains had been found.

One of the Shedd Aquarium’s first beluga whales.

When Shedd Aquarium’s first beluga whales came to Chicago

Reporting by Stefano Esposito

Shedd's first belugas : In 1991, the Shedd Aquarium got its first beluga whales via Canada's Hudson Bay.

No. 1 and No. 3, as the two female belugas were known then, were flown from Tacoma, Washington, a journey that drew international attention.

In part, because of the sheer audacity of hauling marine behemoths out of tanks and into trucks, then onto a plane to a new home.

The controversy : Like the belugas’ arrival from Canada in July , those that came in 1991 sparked protests from activists saying it's cruel to keep whales in "concrete tanks" — the point sharpened, those protesters said, when two Shedd belugas died within minutes of each other 1½ years after the Shedd Aquarium’s new $43 million Abbott Oceanarium.

Looking back : We took a look back at the first arrival of belugas in Chicago and talked with the people who made it happen and who protested passionately.

ICE threatens Dart : Federal immigration enforcement officials threatened to file criminal charges against Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart if he failed to comply with subpoenas asking his office to turn over detainees being held at Cook County Jail.

The sheriff's office said U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sent four subpoenas and threatening letters.

Musician and husband detained : Omar David Panqueva, known as DJ TUNJO, and his husband Santiago Paez were detained by federal agents at Midway Airport Sunday before leaving for a tour in support of megastar Karol G.

Their attorney said the couple had pending asylum cases.

Man sentenced in gun incident : A federal judge sentenced Hector Gomez to 30 months in prison after he admitted he fired a gun "in proximity of" U.S.

Customs and Border Protection agents during the final days of Operation Midway Blitz last fall.

MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️

Family sues after Fox River crash : Magdalena Jablonska was killed in a boat crash on the Fox River last month.

Now her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the man who caused it.

No laughing matter : Nearly 16% of 110 comedians who either lived in Chicago or performed in the city during the first half of this year lack health insurance, a new report from the Health Alliance for Chicago Comedians found.

Things to do Aug.

7-12 : Chance the Rapper live, the Bud Billiken Parade and Northalsted Market Days are among the highlights in the week ahead.

More than 85,000 rubber ducks are dropped into the Chicago River during Special Olympics Illinois’ Chicago Ducky Derby, Thursday, Aug.

6, 2026.

The annual tradition benefits Special Olympics Illinois athletes.