Peggy Larson & friend. (Beth Clifton collage)
“In my youth, I rode bareback broncs in the rodeo.”
I am a both an attorney and a veterinarian, who has treated both ranch and rodeo animals.
(See Who will fix Vermont cats with Peggy Larson retired?)
In my youth, I rode bareback broncs in the rodeo. After law school, I worked as a state criminal prosecutor, where I witnessed how animal abuse leads to human abuse.
My master’s degree is in pathology, so I understand injuries and damage to animal tissue.
I currently work with the police on animal abuse cases. Drawing on all of this expertise and experience, I can confidently say that rodeo is a cruel and archaic form of entertainment that should be outlawed.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Toll of thousands
Thousands of animals have been killed or injured in rodeos.
For example, according to data tracked by the Vancouver Humane Society since 1986, 105 horses have died at the Calgary Stampede alone, 75 of them in the chuckwagon races that are the Calgary Stampede’s signature event.
Six horses were killed during the 2019 chuckwagon races, and one each in 2022 and 2023.
None were killed in 2020 because the Stampede was not held that year due to COVID-19.
Counting steers as well as horses, the Calgary Stampede toll over the past 37 years may be twice as high. And the Calgary Stampede is only one of more than 600 rodeos held around the U.S. and Canada each and every year, along with at least as many Mexican-style rodeos called charreadas.
Steve Hindi. (Beth Clifton collage)
Death & injury toll hidden
Unfortunately, not all animal deaths and injuries are reported, either at the Calgary Stampede or at most rodeos.
Even where rodeos are nominally required to report all instances of animal deaths and injuries, Steve Hindi and the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness team have since 1993 collected and posted to www.sharkonline.org countless examples of egregious animal injuries and even deaths in front of thousands of spectators that were never logged in official reports by rodeo veterinarians and stock contractors.
Horses’ rear ends obscure crowd view of calf with broken back at 2015 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo.
(From SHARK video)
How rodeo animals are killed
Autopsies and examinations of animals used in rodeos done by veterinarians at slaughterhouses often reveal extensive damage.
Ohio veterinarian Robert Bay (1919-2017) autopsied roping calves, finding muscle tears, ligament and tendon damage, damage to the thyroid and trachea, and bruises to the skin. In the practice pens, these calves are roped over and over until they can no longer be used in rodeos. Some die, some are sent to slaughter and some go into feedlots.
Meat inspectors, including Charles Haber, DVM, and Robert Fetzner, DVM, have also reported finding broken bones, blood in the abdomen, organ damage, torn muscles, and damaged tendons and ligaments in rodeo animals sent to slaughter.
Injured horse at the San Diego rodeo.
(From TikTok video)
“Bucking blind”
Rodeo events where bucking horses or bulls are ridden are also cruel and dangerous.
Without the use of spurs and flank straps, horses and bulls would not buck hard enough for the rider to score points. Horses would merely “crow hop,” if they bucked at all. Bulls would try to get the rider off their backs, but would not buck as hard without the flank strap.
Horses and bulls are forced to buck beyond their normal bucking patterns. This often leads to injuries and sometimes death. Bulls have broken their legs and horses have suffered cardiac arrest and have broken their backs and necks.
Use of flank straps and spurs often causes horses to “buck blind,” where they lose track of their surroundings in a bucking frenzy, and run into the arena fencing and gates.
One of my personal friends was killed when his horse bucked blind into the arena fencing, became tangled in the fencing and fell on him, breaking his neck.
The recent San Diego Rodeo at PETCO Park featured a similar incident, in which a blinded horse collided with the arena fencing. Officially, neither the horse nor the rider suffered lasting injury, but video of the incident certainly raises questions.
(See Shoveling the bull & horse manure after the San Diego Rodeo.)
Injured horse at the San Diego rodeo.
(From Instagram video)
Extreme fear & stress
Inflicting extreme fear and stress on the animals is an inherent part of rodeos, which could not exist without the fear factor. Rodeo animals are all prey animals. They want to escape, to the extent that some try to climb over the chutes and some attempt to ram their way out.
Many salivate, roll their eyes, bellow or whinny, and do anything they can to get the rider off their backs.
In mutton-busting, an event used to introduce children to rodeo, participants ride sheep as the animals attempt to get away. Some of the children who participate are as young as three years old. These children are at risk, and not just from hard falls. A three-year-old Texas boy, Derek Scott Kirby, was thrown from a sheep at a central Texas rodeo in June 2010 and ingested dirt from the arena. He became infected with E. coli and almost died. His kidneys quit functioning and he required extensive hospitalization.
A friend who is a neurologist says that it is only a matter of time before a child becomes seriously and permanently injured at one of these events.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Bad example for children
Children and teens also participate in goat tying, where they forcefully throw young goats to the ground and tie their legs together. Baby goats are fragile little animals. They are friendly and trusting. Throwing them into the arena dirt and tying them up is highly stressful to them, and most cry constantly until released.
When children see an animal abused, such as a baby calf being roped, dragged, choked and slammed to the ground by a grown man, and see him win prizes for his behavior, this tells the child that abusing animals is not only acceptable but a way to win fame and fortune.
ANIMALS 24-7 readers scarcely need to be reminded that many violent criminals abuse animals before they injure or kill humans. Among the most notorious were the serial killers Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Charles Manson, but similar examples can be found in the crime news every day––at least three, in fact, just on the day that ANIMALS 24-7 prepared this guest column for posting.
See Rodeo has had free pass from humane groups for 60 years, recalls Warren Cox.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Children must not be taught that abuse is acceptable
Children must not attend rodeos and have brutality to animals modeled to them!
Based on the injuries, deaths, autopsies of roping calves, and reports from meat inspectors at slaughter plants, rodeo is animal abuse. The proof is overwhelming.
Rodeo is not a “sport,” as the animals have no choice about participating, have little or no chance to “win,” and even if they succeed in throwing a rider, the only reward is the opportunity to be ridden again and again before going to slaughter.
Beth & Merritt Clifton.
Rodeo is not suitable family entertainment, any more than were the horrific public punishments of the Middle Ages. By design, the animals are injured and some die.
Our children must not be taught that abuse is acceptable. It is time to make rodeo illegal.
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The post It is time to make rodeo illegal, by Peggy W. Larson, DVM, MS-Path., JD. appeared first on Animals 24-7.