Anheuser-Busch says its Missouri farms will no longer amputate the tails of Budweiser's...

The St. Louis-based beermaker says it will end the practice known as tail docking after it came under pressure by animal rights group PETA.
Anheuser-Busch says it will end the practice of amputating the tails of its signature Budweiser Clydesdale horses, following a pressure campaign from the animal rights group PETA.

The beer company said the practice of equine tail docking was discontinued earlier this year, according to a statement from an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson.

PETA had earlier this year launched a campaign criticizing the beermaker's practices, including an unofficial Super Bowl commercial — a sharp rebuke to Budweiser's decades-spanning custom of running Super Bowl ads featuring the horses towing its beer wagons.

The animal rights organization posted video it said had been recorded at Warm Springs Ranch in Missouri, the official breeding facility for Budweiser's Clydesdales, and Grant's Farm, a Busch family property — both facilities that can be visited by the public. The video shows horses at the farms rapidly swinging their shortened tails, apparently swatting away insects with limited success.