Animal advocacy group PETA has sent a letter to NCAA Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Greg Sankey, urging him to prevent University of Texas (UT) at Austin from bringing its live longhorn steer mascot, Bevo, to Friday’s Cotton Bowl Classic game against Ohio State University.
Bevo XV, the fifteenth Texas longhorn to represent UT Austin as its live mascot in its athletic programs, made his debut during the 2016 season-opener game against Notre Dame, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Though he is a very beloved animal amongst Longhorns fans, he was banned from December’s Peach Bowl due to there being “not enough room on the sidelines of Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” event organizers said in a statement.
The large animal also found himself in controversy in 2019 after charging at the University of Georgia’s (UGA) live bulldog mascot, Uga:
Citing these incidents in the letter to Sankey, PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman said she is “highly concerned to see that Bevo would be attending the Cotton Bowl Classic at the AT&T Stadium this Friday.”
“Bevo is not a prop, and subjecting him to the stress of being packed up, hauled from town to town, and paraded around as a sideline spectacle is not only cruel, it’s a recipe for disaster,” Reiman said, before urging the SEC to make sure the Longhorns utilize human mascots instead.
“Ethical, professional teams like the Dallas Cowboys use costumed human mascots rather than animals,” the letter argued.
“Please consider the fear and stress Bevo will no doubt experience on Friday and the danger you put all players, staff, cheerleaders, media, and fans in by allowing a 1,700-pound longhorn steer on the sidelines,” the organization concluded.
Neither Sankey nor UT Austin officials have responded to PETA’s request, and Bevo already appears to be on his way to the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, according to an Instagram Story post:
