A small group of animal welfare advocates will demonstrate outside the George Ingalls Equestrian Center this weekend to protest the 39th Norco Mounted Posse-Professional Rodeo Cowboys’ Association rodeo.
The protest is being led by Last Chance for Animals, with assistance from Orange County Animal Liberation and the Los Angeles Animal Defense League. The groups will gather from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday and from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday in front of the venue at 3737 Crestview Drive.
Activists are calling for a ban on rodeos, and hope to call attention to what they consider the inherent cruelty of events such as bull-riding and calf-roping.
“It is important to recognize what rodeos truly are: a form of animal abuse masked as entertainment,” LCA said. “While rodeos are often seen as a celebration of tradition and `ranch life,’ it’s important to recognize that there are more compassionate ways to honor these values without subjecting animals to fear, pain, and stress for the entertainment of spectators. The violence inherent in rodeo events is undeniable.”
The PRCA issued the following statement to CNS before last year’s rodeo:
“As a sanctioning body for professional rodeo, PRCA takes animal safety and welfare seriously. We regulate and monitor rodeo competitors and stock contractors, and we expect them as well as PRCA sanctioned rodeos to adhere to more than 60 rules designed to prevent animal injuries.
“These rules include a ban on the use of electric prods and guidelines for flank strap materials that are meant to cue a horse to buck, not to cause pain. Rule violations are subject to fines or other penalties, and we require trained veterinarians to be in the arena at all sanctioned rodeo performances.”
The statement continued, “Rodeo is an intrinsic part of Western culture. We are proud of that heritage and proud of all the steps we take to make animal welfare a top priority for PRCA.”
Cities including Irvine, Pasadena, San Francisco and Vancouver have passed so-called “rodeo bans,” either banning the events entirely or prohibiting certain practices such as electric prods, flank straps, wire tie-downs, and sharpened spurs.
The Los Angeles City Council has been preparing such an ordinance since 2023, but has yet to take a final vote on the matter.
Rodeo is condemned by nearly EVERY animal welfare organization on Earth due to its inherent cruelty. Rodeo has almost NOTHING to do with ranching. For most of the animals, the rodeo arena is merely a detour en route to the slaughterhouse. Real working ranch hands never routinely rode bulls, or rode bareback, or wrestled steers, or barrel raced, or practiced calf roping (terrified BABIES!) as a timed event. Nor did they put irritating flank straps on the horses and bulls or work them over in the holding chutes with painful “hotshots,” tail-twisting, kicks and slaps. Some “sport”!
Indeed, rodeo is not a true “sport” at all. That term denotes willing, evenly-matched participants. Rodeo does not qualify. Rather, it’s a mostly bogus, macho exercise in DOMINATION. It needs to end. And the media needs to stop promoting this blatant cruelty. I was present at the 1995 California Rodeo/Salinas when FIVE animals suffered and died, all in the name of “entertainment.” Only in the aftermath of the mayhem did the PRCA adopt a rule requiring on-site veterinarians at all their events. The great majority of the estimated 2,000+ U.S. rodeos don’t provide even this basic care, and animal injuries and deaths are commonplace. Even Cesar Chavez was an outspoken critic; ditto Pope Francis and Jane Goodall.
The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) outlawed rodeos back in 1934, soon followed by the Netherlands. Can the U.S. be far behind? Rodeo has had its brutal day and now belongs in the Dustbin of History. BOYCOTT ALL RODEOS, THEIR CORPORATE ADVERTISERS & SPONSORS. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
See prize-winning documentary, “BUCKING TRADITION” – http://www.buckingtradition.com (also available on YouTube).
1995 HSUS rodeo video, “Bucking the Myth” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRQFZwIfZrk&t=3
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Eric Mills, coordinator
ACTION FOR ANIMALS
Oakland
As a former bareback bronc rider, pathologist and large animal veterinarian, I have both the experience and autopsy proof that rodeo injures and kills animals. Dr. Robert Bay from Colorado autopsied roping calves and found hemorrhages, torn muscles, torn ligaments, damage to the trachea, damage to the throat and damage to the thyroid. These calves never get a chance to heal before they are used again. Meat inspectors including Drs. Haber and Fetzner who processed rodeo animals found broken bones, ruptured internal organs, massive amounts of blood in the abdomen from ruptured blood vessels and damage to the ligamentum nuchae that holds the neck to the rest of the spinal column.
Dr. C. G. Haber, a veterinarian with thirty years of experience as a USDA meat inspector, stated “The rodeo folks send their animals to the packing houses where I have seen cattle so extensively bruised that the only areas in which the skin was attached was the head, neck, legs, and belly. I have seen animals with six to eight ribs broken from the spine and at times puncturing the lungs. I have seen as much as two and three gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin.” TIME TO END RODEO FOREVER.