Recently, a small group of young people tried to save the life of a young cow who was destined for slaughter. Little did “Team Bentley” know that their efforts would gain the backing of over a thousand supporters or that they would meet with such resistance. The Daily Veg interviewed the leader of Team Bentley to find out what they are about and what they are doing now.

So what's Team Bentley all about?

Each year children across the country raise cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, quail, turkey and rabbits from babies, some bottle fed, for their annual 4-H "project". The requirements of "project completion" in this club dictate that all animals be terminated by summers end at the county fair. If you enter into a "market project" you can't get to the fair and decide you want to take your once pet home with you - this is forbidden. All market animals are sold to the highest bidder in a public auction and are then sent to slaughter. The child cannot turn back even if they choose to and the animal is to be terminated.

We feel that this is an age old barbaric tradition that should end, or at least be made public. Most people do not realize that the little lambs they pet at the fair aren't going home to their nice green fields. They don't know that children are required to sell their pets for food, to "learn a valuable life lesson". In today's society this lesson need not be taught; the world is much different now than it was 50 years ago.

Our mission was to be the highest bidder on Bentley at the market auction and to buy his freedom. By buying Bentley and helping him escape death row, we were hoping not to just save one steer, but to raise awareness as to what really happens at the fair, to hopefully make a positive change.

What happened at the fair?

We had two sets of people bidding; the people meant to win and our obvious decoy, to try to prevent being bid up too much. Our end total, thanks to all the amazing people who sent in donations for Bentley's life was $2,927 – twice what a much larger steer went for. That should have been enough to buy him, but no price would have been enough. No matter what we bid, it would be upped! His auction was so fast, the people we assumed would bid us up to get all our money never stopped. We didn't have any more, but our two courageous members didn't want to let go of him. They knew we hadn't a cent more than $3,000, but they held on until $4,708. They had to stop; there was no more money in any account and it wasn't going to end there - Bentley sold for $4,815. For a tiny steer (he was a lot smaller than the rest) with no winnings, that is insane!

It was a witch hunt. When our bidders would bid, the whole place was silent. When we were outbid, the whole place cheered and you should have heard the applause when we finally gave in. They should be ashamed of themselves, but what is even sadder is they are not! Finally, at the end of every other animal's auction they would announce the winning bidder; Bentley's winning bidder was not announced.

Did you find out who bought him?

The vice president of the Geauga county fair and owner of Arms Trucking Co, Mr. Howard W. Bates.

Who do you blame for this?

I am angry at the Fair Board. I am angry at 4-H and their closed minded way of thinking. Yes, we do feel different than they do, but we are not bad people and we aren't criminals. We have never threatened to harm anyone and our money is as good as anyone else’s. A sale is a sale; why is it wrong if we do not want the animal to die?
Finally, I am angry that they had police and sheriffs guarding Bentley and the whole beef barn as if we were extremists, even after I have been so kind, honest and open with the press.

What are your plans now?

We have many great ideas (thanks to a lot of our supporters) for the future to keep fighting and spreading the word about the wrongs that 4-H teaches children and inflict upon animals. The first step that demands our immediate attention, which most supporters asked us to do, is trying to save a different animal from a 4-H auction. With the donations we still have, thanks to all of those who wanted us to keep them, we can still help an animal before fair season is over. Not having a target fair or animal, the plotting that kept us from succeeding last time could not happen again. At least not without the fair boards and 4-H clubs completely exposing themselves for what they truly are. At first, although an obvious thing to do, we felt wrong using the money we had raised to save Bentley on someone else, but that is just grief talking and it would be insane not to! Depending on the amount of donations we have when the time comes, we could hopefully save a different steer and maybe even some other animals too! This is not over!

Why should people be concerned and what can they do to help?

4-H brainwashes children into thinking that being compassionate towards different species other than human beings is wrong. It is not a normal human instinct to be OK with losing an animal you care for, especially to your own greed. Children aren't born with this disregard for other living creatures, it is a learned emotion. One of the fundamentals of this 4-H "project" is that the child cares for this animal in every way possible; 4-H wants you to believe that this is a valuable life lesson, but the only lesson these children learn is desensitization. Almost every child cries the first time they give up their former pet for dead, but they "get over it" as Claudia Derov (the person who chose to raise Bentley and then strive for his death) pointed out during our fight to save Bentley. Why is there a club that teaches children to turn off their natural emotions about losing a friend, and become accustomed to killing? It makes no sense. In the case of Bentley and Claudia, it makes even less sense. She had a choice and a second chance for Bentley; she was so hardened to the pain and suffering of an animal she claimed in the press to care about, that she actually fought to insure that he died! There is a reason children have a hard time doing this the first few times; it's called guilt, brought on by a conscience that is slowly killed off, making way for the next generation of unethical club members and their culture of slaughter.

We want this to stop. We want to lobby to change state laws allowing children the option to keep their pets and the buyer the option to take the animal out alive. It should not be mandatory for the animals to die after a public auction in the name of "entertainment." We are in the process of turning into a non-profit organization. We plan to save various animals during fair seasons and safely relocate them to sanctuaries. By saving more and more lives, not only will we make a difference to those animals, but people will begin to notice this and realize that there are other options out there. We are working on our own web page where supporters across the country will be able to check to see how their own local county fair measures up in terms of how cruel it is. If people would like flyers to hand out, or materials to organize their own peaceful demonstrations outside of their fairs, we will supply that, along with help and advice on staging their own fair animal rescue. Another popular idea is to start our own 4-H clubs, which would teach kindness and compassion; where a child can have a "project" animal and not have to murder it, or take it to a scary fair. Their "project" could be learning to volunteer at local animal shelters and sanctuaries and learn to be a truly valuable member of society.

Anyone wanting to help with our campaign can obviously make a donation; all proceeds go straight into rescuing an animal and relocating it somewhere safe. There are also letters to write and phone calls to be made.

• People can write the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and ask why such a one sided article glorifying death was written. That web address is: letters@plaind.com
• People can also e-mail the other two popular Cleveland papers who had interest in Bentley; the FreeTimes (editor@freetimes.com) and the Cleveland Scene (feedback@clevescene.com)
• People can leave a comment on the Plain Dealer web site after the final instalment of Bentley's story voicing disgust at http://blog.cleveland.com/pdworld/2007/09/4her_says_goodbye_to_her_steer.html

One of the most disturbing parts of Bentley's story is the fact that the Geauga County Fair was so intent on him being slaughtered that the Vice President of the Geauga County Fair bought him for three times the amount of money that the other steer sold for, just to insure his death. This man's name is Howard Bates, and he runs Arms Trucking Co. You can contact Mr. Bates and complain at 14376 North Cheshire St., Burton Ohio, 44021 or you can call him at 440-834-4965. One of our supporters claims if you then press the emergency number, you will connect directly to Howard Bates cell phone. Ask him why he fought so hard to insure no animal left his fair alive! People can also contact Ohio's 4-H Extension Educator Pam Weisel, 4-H youth development at 440-834-4656 or weisel.2@osu.edu and ask her why 4-H supports teaching children these "life lessons." Finally, people can contact Claudia's actual 4-H advisor at 440-286-2498; the club’s name is Breeders & Feeders and they are the ones physically teaching lessons in betrayal and killing.

Team Bentley can be visited at http://www.myspace.com/savebentley, for more info or to send donations.