The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday called for the drafting of an ordinance that would ban rodeos in city limits over concerns the events are inherently cruel to animals, but the council indicated it wants to carve out exemptions for certain cultural and traditional activities.
Council members voted 14-0, with Councilwoman Nithya Raman absent, in favor of a motion instructing the city attorney to amend city law to define and prohibit “rodeos,” as well as “harmful practices, techniques and devices or rodeo-related events.”
“Isn’t this Los Angeles? Are we not the city of angels, the compassionate city that leads? We usually set the trends. Not this time,” said Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who introduced the motion in 2021. “But this time, we have an opportunity to catch up.”
On another 14-0 vote, the council also approved an amendment to the motion by Blumenfield and Monica Rodriguez. It’s intended to carve out protections for cultural and traditional equestrian events such as CharrerÃa, predominantly practiced by Latinos and a tradition in Mexican and western United States livestock herding communities, among other activities.
“The amendment today changes what you see in the council file. And what was there before was banning the instruments of torture that caused the pain to the animals,” Blumenfield said prior to the vote.
“But unfortunately, that confused some folks. Originally, I thought that was the way to go. Because it was very specific, but people started thinking well, maybe it’ll apply to something else and that it could potentially be interpreted too broadly,” Blumenfield added. “They thought they could not go horseback riding or participate in CharrerÃa events or do dressage or trail runs. We wanted to make sure that those things were not captured.”
Rodriguez said if the city were to approve a blanket ban on rodeos it could be weaponized and directly impact communities of color.
“I’m actually really grateful in that this ordinance has unified communities of color that are supportive of equine-keeping practices. This rich cultural tradition that has unified all of our communities because it is something that we all gravitate to is something that is really well celebrated,” Rodriguez said prior to the vote.
While Rodriguez and other council members applauded the changes to the motion, Blumenfield clarified there will be no major changes made to the item.
“I don’t want to throw a monkey wrench into the kumbaya here, but I want to make it clear this is not about re-litigating or sending it back to committee, or going back to the drawing board,” Blumenfield said.
He told his colleagues that the motion is an “instruction” to the city attorney to draft an ordinance that bans specific cruel activities such as “bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, road capping, etc.”
It also says that “we are going to define rodeos not to include equestrian and CharrerÃa events; American Indian or indigenous rodeo events, etc.” provided that the event does not engage in the “compromising” activities that meet the definition of rodeo, Blumenfield added.
When the proposed ordinance heads to the Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment Committee next, at a future date, the three-member body will consider whether or not the city attorney’s draft does “what we are telling them to do,” the councilman noted.
Rodriguez said she was disappointed there wasn’t expertise or input from stakeholders in drafting the proposed ordinance to fully understand the implications of what the affected events are, or what they entail.
“… I want this to go back to committee for the purposes of really having a very firm technical understanding of how this could potentially be misinterpreted and applied to communities of color,” Rodriguez said. “This has to invite our communities to be part of that conversation, so that we can fully appreciate it.”
Councilman John Lee, who sits on the committee, agreed with Rodriguez and he noted he will ensure a full discussion around protecting cultural traditions.
Council President Paul Krekorian reiterated that whenever a council majority decides to weigh in or change a proposed ordinance they “always” preserve that option.
Blumenfield said his colleagues could introduce a separate motion to send his proposal back to the drawing board.