Going through stress from animal rights activists, Anheuser-Busch introduced on Wednesday that it had ended the observe of amputating the tails of its Budweiser Clydesdales, the acquainted equine figures within the brewing firm’s promoting campaigns for almost a century.

The transfer got here as Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser’s dad or mum firm, has confronted criticism for the observe, which is banned in a number of international locations and has been denounced as inhumane by animal welfare organizations.

“The security and well-being of our beloved Clydesdales is our high precedence,” an Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman stated in an announcement on Wednesday. “The observe of equine tail docking was discontinued earlier this yr.”

Earlier this yr, Anheuser-Busch drew criticism after the discharge of an investigation by Folks for the Moral Therapy of Animals, or PETA, that documented the amputations at breeding and coaching amenities for the Budweiser Clydesdales in Missouri.

Often known as tail docking, the observe is usually carried out on draft horses, such because the Clydesdale, to “forestall the tail of the horse from interfering with harness and carriage tools,” based on the American Veterinary Medical Affiliation.

In keeping with the affiliation, the amputation removes a portion of the bony a part of a horse’s tail.

A consultant for Anheuser-Busch didn’t say why the corporate had carried out the process on its horses.

PETA publicized its investigation in an commercial marketing campaign in February, across the time of the Tremendous Bowl, when the Budweiser Clydesdales seem on hundreds of thousands of screens throughout the nation in TV commercials.

The PETA marketing campaign included billboards and the discharge of a mock Tremendous Bowl business.

Past the bodily ache inflicted on the horse in the course of the process, tail docking restricts a horse’s capacity to guard itself from bugs and to speak with different horses, the American Veterinary Medical Affiliation stated.

That’s the reason a number of states within the U.S. and international locations in Europe, together with Belgium and Germany, have banned the process, based on the group.

Budweiser started utilizing the horses in its advertising and marketing starting in 1933, based on Anheuser-Busch.

Two six-horse Clydesdale hitches hauling beer wagons appeared in a New York Metropolis ceremony that yr to mark the tip of prohibition, based on the corporate’s web site, and subsequently toured the Northeast.

At the moment, a crew of 10 Clydesdale horses haul Budweiser beer wagons, which seem at advertising and marketing occasions throughout the nation.

The horses, together with their Dalmatian companions, have been a Tremendous Bowl business staple since 1975, based on Anheuser-Busch. Within the Nineteen Eighties, the corporate started airing Christmas-themed commercials that includes them.

The corporate’s discontinuation of tail docking cleared the way in which for it to obtain certification by American Humane, the nationwide animal welfare group. That certification was introduced on Wednesday.

Kathy Guillermo, a vice chairman at PETA, stated the group’s workers members had been “cracking open some chilly ones right this moment” to have fun the information, including that the choice “sends a message to different firms that animal abuse doesn’t promote.”

Rob Franklin, the president of the American Affiliation of Equine Practitioners, a number one horse veterinary group, praised the information on Wednesday, saying that the group was “hopeful that this motion will assist result in a brand new period of draft horse welfare and security.”