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.”
(5) comments
December 8, 2022 RODEO'S INHERENT CRUELTIES
Kudos to L.A. TIMES reporter Susanne Rust for her 12/7 horrific expose of the injuries and deaths routinely suffered by animals in the rodeo arena. Those injury reports are required by state law, CA Penal Code 596.7, the result of 1999 legislation sponsored by ACTION FOR ANIMALS, and carried for me by Senator Don Perata (D-Oakland). EVERY state should have such a law, minimum.
Incredibly, in 22 years not a single injury report came from one of the estimated 800 "charreadas," the Mexican-style rodeos. Clearly, Penal Code 596.7 needs amending so as to drop the "on call vet" option, and require an ON-SITE veterinarian at every rodeo and charreada. Surely this is the very least we owe the animals. Racetracks, horse shows and endurance rides all require on-site veterinarians. So should all rodeos.
The proposed L.A. rodeo ordinance was unanimously approved by the Animal Welfare Committee and now goes to the full City Council for debate and vote, likely in mid-January 2023. Let them hear from you!
Sincerely,
Eric Mills, coordinator
ACTION FOR ANIMALS
Rodeos are blatant animal cruelty, and exploitation. The animals are tormented and exposed to the probability of pain, injury, or death,--disgusting. This inhumane “sport” should have ended decades ago. We don’t have to harm innocent animals for our amusement, nor should we as a civilized society.
1995 HSUS rodeo video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmYFKlUnlXE
www.buckingtradition.com
The California Rodeo is hardly in a moral position to advise anyone on rodeo issues. I was present at the 1995 Salinas rodeo when FIVE animals suffered and died: two horses on the surrounding race track (heart attack; broken leg), three in the rodeo arena (wrestling steer with a broken neck; horse in "wild horse race" with broken neck; roping calf with a broken back). The calf was not euthanized, but simply trucked off to slaughter, terrified and in agony. "Pain-killers administered," I asked the tending veterinarian? "No," he responded, "that would ruin the meat." That vet's license should have been suspended for malpractice. At the time (1995), the rodeo was bringing in a reported $13 MILLION to Salinas. Worth of the calf's "meat"? Maybe $125. UNACCEPTABLE! The PRCA does indeed have many rules--they are poorly enforced. They began requiring on-site vets only in 1996, in response to the 1995 mayhem at Salinas.
The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) outlawed rodeos back in 1934; the Netherlands & Germany have since followed suit. Can the U.S. be far behind?
Lest we forget, most of rodeo is bogus from the git-go. REAL working ranch hands never routinely rode bulls, or wrestled steers, or rode bareback, or barrel raced, or practiced calf roping as a timed event. And they certainly did not put flank straps on the animals, or work them over in the holding chutes with painful "hotshots," kicks and slaps.....Some "sport"! Indeed, rodeo is not a sport at all--that term denotes willing, evenly-matched participants. Rodeo does not qualify. Rather, it's a macho exercise in DOMINATION. And it needs to cease. Legislation is in order. Until that happy day, BOYCOTT ALL RODEOS, THEIR CORPORATE SPONSORS AND ADVERTISERS. Follow the money.
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