California Rodeo Salinas responds to animal rights group's charges of underreporting animal injuries.

No one should be surprised that animals (and humans) get hurt doing rodeos that include high-speed, high-impact events like steer wrestling, bull riding and calf roping.

Or that animal rights groups have had a long-festering beef with productions like the annual California Rodeo Salinas. 

Now a SHARK has entered the arena.

And as of just now, rodeo officials are responding.

An agency called Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (borrowing SH from Showing to complete the acronym) has filed a lawsuit alleging rodeo officials failed to report animal injuries to the state veterinary medical board, as required under California law.

Their primary evidence is video SHARK claims demonstrates injuries to 41 different animals over the last two years, including a horse with a neck wound and and a number of calves struggling to run and avoiding the use of one leg. 

A SHARK press release announces Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) filed the suit Wednesday in Monterey County Superior Court on behalf of SHARK.

Also named as a defendant is California Rodeo Salinas head veterinarian Tim Eastman.

Rodeo spokesperson Amanda Gianolini offered this statement in response: 

The California Rodeo Salinas has not been served with a filed copy of the complaint and cannot comment as to its contents or allegations made therein.

The care and handling of livestock at our Rodeo is the highest priority and we have extensive programs in place to provide for the livestock that participate in our event.

She also directs us to the rodeo website for more on the the California Rodeo's Livestock Welfare program. 

Sixty rules are in place to prevent injury to animals. Some are listed in the Livestock section of the rodeo's website.

A 2010 safety survey conducted by rodeo official counted 60,244 exposures (or possibilities for injury) over 148 distinct events, with a total of 28 injuries, a rate of .00046.

Steve Hindi, founder and president of SHARK, offers further thoughts. 

“California law requires the reporting of rodeo animal injuries,” he says. “The intent was to make rodeos transparent. Instead, the law has not been enforced, but rather, manipulated to make rodeos appear harmless."

Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, continues from there. 

“California law recognizes that rodeos endanger the animals who are forced to participate, which is why the law requires veterinarians to report animal injuries,” he says. “Without transparency, groups such as ALDF and SHARK cannot hold rodeos accountable for the suffering they cause. This lawsuit is intended to change that.”