CHEYENNE - A booking company for Cheyenne Frontier Days filed a lawsuit Wednesday against an animal rights group in the wake of a decision by the rock band Matchbox Twenty to pull out of a scheduled performance this summer.

Omaha, Neb.-based Romeo Entertainment Group filed the lawsuit in federal court in Cheyenne against SHARK, which stands for Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, and its president, Steve Hindi.

The lawsuit contends Hindi and SHARK, which is based in Geneva, Ill., used "false and misleading information" and "threats of negative publicity" in its effort to persuade entertainers to cancel their performances at the Cheyenne rodeo.

The lawsuit says Romeo Entertainment has lost more than $100,000 from Matchbox Twenty dropping out of its scheduled July 18 performance.

The lawsuit also blamed SHARK for singer Carrie Underwood's decision to cancel a scheduled performance at Frontier Days in 2006. It did not provide a dollar figure on the loss of the Underwood concert.

The lawsuit seeks a court order to stop Hindi and SHARK from contacting any entertainers that have agreed or may agree in the future to perform at Frontier Days.

The lawsuit claims that Def Leppard and Bon Jovi also were contacted by Hindi and SHARK, but those entertainers did not cancel their performances last year.

Matchbox Twenty and Underwood are not being sued by Romeo Entertainment.

Corinne Rutledge, attorney for Romeo Entertainment, declined to discuss why the entertainers were not part of the lawsuit or why no lawsuit was brought when Underwood canceled previously.

"The complaint sets out what we're prepared to offer today by way of the press," Rutledge said.

Hindi said he looked forward to the case. He said his interactions with entertainers are protected as free speech.

"I think they're going to have a real, real tough time with this case," he said. "We are an animal protection organization, and we're going to keep trying to protect animals."

Hindi traveled to Cheyenne from Illinois to hold a news conference Wednesday about his efforts against the Cheyenne rodeo, which lasts 10 days in July and includes a host of non-rodeo events.

He told a crowd that packed a small room in the county library that his intention is not to shut down the rodeo but to change rodeo events and practices that he considers to be cruel to horses, calves and steers.

Hindi presented videos his organization took at the 2007 Frontier Days rodeo. They showed calves and steers being jerked by cowboy ropers and dragged through the mud, and bucking horses in chutes where rodeo hands had small electric shock devices.

Hindi said it was inhumane to subject animals to such treatment and illegal to shock horses to get them to buck.

Members of the audience argued he wasn't being fair to Western culture by not showing the care afforded to rodeo animals and the efforts of rodeo cowboys to protect them, such as cutting ropes when it's evident an animal is in distress. Some attendees said Hindi was ignorant of ranch life and that he would do better to address violent human sporting events in cities before trying to impose his animal rights views on the West.

Other members of the audience supported Hindi, saying there was no need for the rodeo to have events where the animals could be hurt or killed.

Cheyenne Frontier Days has announced that comedian Bill Engvall and country singer Randy Owen will finish out the performance series during this year's rodeo.

Engvall rose to fame as a member of the Blue Collar Comedy group and has branched out from his stand-up success with roles in movies and television shows, including the TBS sitcom "The Bill Engvall Show."

Owen spent more than 25 years as the lead vocalist of the country music group Alabama, which sold 73 million albums and has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He plans to release a solo album this summer, according to a news release.

The Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra will accompany Owen in its first performance at Frontier Days since the orchestra played with Trisha Yearwood in 1997.

Frontier Days said tickets for the July 26 show will go on sale Monday and will range from $25 to $45.

- Associated Press]]->