California Rodeo Salinas isn’t set to take place until July, but organizers are asking fans to take action now by calling Los Angeles City Council members and urging them not to pass a “rodeo ban.” The proposed ordinance, requested by LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, would ban “electric prods or shocking devices, flank or bucking straps, wire tiedowns, and sharpened or fixed spurs or rowels at all rodeo or rodeo-related events in the city of Los Angeles.” Blumenfield said “to address inhumane treatment of animals at rodeos… is long overdue.”
The council voted 15-0 in 2021 to proceed, and has until 2023 to pass or deny the ordinance, which is modeled on one the city of Pittsburgh enacted in 1992.
While LA’s ordinance, if approved, would not apply in Salinas, California Rodeo Salinas organizers worry it would become a precedent for other cities, and could eventually lead to a larger-scale, even federal, ban. They note the state already has laws and regulations for rodeo equipment, plus another 70 guidelines from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association concerning the welfare of livestock and contestants.
If the ordinance passes, it would mean events such as bull and bronco riding, steer wrestling and calf roping would be prohibited. Tim Baldwin, who has volunteered with the rodeo in Salinas for almost 20 years and chairs the Livestock Welfare Committee, says the draft ordinance also bans equipment that is used to keep contestants and livestock safe.
Flank straps, for example, make bulls and horses buck consistently, and spurs help riders to grip the animal they are riding. Baldwin says the ordinance is “wrongfully claiming this equipment causes injuries to livestock.”