Lori Lightfoot’s “Census Cowboy” Allegedly Rides Horse to Near Death And Charged with Animal Cruelty, Prosecutors Say

Back in March, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced us all to the “Census Cowboy.” This was the cowboy who was going to ride around Chicago, on horseback, to encourage participation in the census.

Well, now that Census Cowboy, Adam Hollingsworth, who is more widely known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy”, is in deep doo-doo. He is alleged to have ridden his horse to the point of exhaustion and near death during a Kids Lives Matter protest on a Chicago highway.

What a POS!

From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago’s “Dread Head Cowboy” rode his horse to exhaustion — and narrowly close to death — while protesting gun violence against children on the Dan Ryan Expressway earlier this week, Cook County prosecutors said.

The horse will never ride again and may need to be euthanized, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Deboni said Wednesday, adding that one veterinarian compared Adam Hollingsworth’s actions to “forcing an 80-year-old woman to run a full marathon.”

Authorities found the horse collapsed on the pavement near 95th Street Monday, overheated, dehydrated, bleeding from the hooves, and with eyes so dilated they resembled “cartoon eyes,” Deboni said. The horse, coerced to run seven miles without horseshoes, also had sores beneath its saddle, which wasn’t properly padded, the prosecutor said.

Hollingsworth is facing multiple criminal charges.

In addition to animal cruelty — a felony — Hollingsworth has also been charged with several misdemeanors: reckless conduct, disobeying a police officer, obstructing traffic and criminal trespass to state supported property.

Hollingsworth denies there was any wrongdoing or mistreatment of his horse. And he has some supporters. Hollingsworth started a GoFundMe in May to raise money to buy land so he can keep horses in the city and introduce horses to Chicago’s youth. He has already raised over $85,000 and has received many donations since this Dan Ryan expressway incident.

Hollingsworth is a known activist and pillar in the Chicago community, his defense attorney said Wednesday. She said he loves and cares for his horses, and disputed the facts as they were laid out by the prosecution.

In a video posted to Facebook, Hollingsworth could be seen riding down the expressway with a motorcycle escort and yelling “kids lives matter.”

“All imma say until we focus on Kids lives matter this gone keep happening,” he wrote on Facebook ahead of the ride.

“I love everybody out here, man,” said Adam Hollingsworth aka The Dreadhead Cowboy, who received a standing ovation. Organizers announce that they’re setting up a GoFundMe to assist him in getting his horse, Nunu, back from the city. #ChicagoProtests pic.twitter.com/7e48fkkBm8

— Grace Del Vecchio (she/her) (@delvecchiograce) September 24, 2020

The Asisstant State’s Attorney on the case, Kevin Deboni, alleges that Hollingsworth claimed he would “ride his horse until it dies” in a video posted on Facebook June 11th.

Activist and long-time agitator Father Michael Pfleger is calling for authorities to drop the charges against Hollingsworth.

Father Michael Pfleger and activist Ja’Mal Green called for authorities to release Adam Hollingsworth — better known as the Dread Head Cowboy — from police custody and drop charges against him for riding a horse on the Dan Ryan Expressway during Monday’s evening rush as a form of protest against kids getting shot in Chicago.

“I’m with the Cowboy 100% and I think these charges need to be dropped” Pfleger, who led 5,000 people onto the Dan Ryan in 2018 to protest violence, told the Chicago Sun-Times in a phone call Tuesday.

“I think we need to do a whole lot more disruption of shopping and traffic and business as usual until we deal with this violence.”

It is very hard to believe that Hollingsworth didn’t see the distress he was causing his horse. I believe he simply didn’t care. He was more concerned with gaining attention for himself and his cause from this publicity stunt than he was about his horse.  Hopefully the Chicago prosecutors don’t bow to public pressure and back off the charges.

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