What happened when I tried to ban rodeo in New York? by Irene Muschel

(Beth Clifton collage)

More cosponsors signed on to the rodeo ban bill than big groups helped to try to pass it

(Irene Muschel, a longtime New York City animal advocate, school teacher, and social worker, lives about a mile from the American SPCA head offices as the crow flies, but a world away as ethics evolve. See Why ASPCA pitch “Take a Bite Out of Farm Animal Cruelty” makes us puke. )

The only way rodeos will stop is if legislators pass laws to stop them.

Even with laws––as we know from many animal issues––enforcement of the laws has to follow.

Without laws, rodeos will continue despite people writing angry letters to newspaper editors, fiery protests by animal advocates screaming “Rodeos are cruelty to animals!” in front of rodeos––who are openly mocked by rodeo participants and attendees, i.e. “Why don’t you get a job!”or “I love meat!” ––and ongoing trauma, injury, and deaths of innocent animals.

Activism on behalf of NYC carriage horses has continued for 165 years, but rodeos in Madison Square Garden go almost unnoticed.
(Beth Clifton collage)

The bill was introduced

A few years ago, after watching the gut-wrenching videos of rodeos on www.sharkonline.org and having received documentation of the external and internal physical injuries, with their inevitable accompaniment of fear and terror forced on animals sadistically abused in rodeos, I approached New York state assembly member Linda Rosenthal, and asked her to introduce a bill in the New York legislature to stop this egregious form of animal abuse.

She did so.

The bill covered all of the acts that define rodeo. Had it passed, it would have prevented rodeos in this state.

This is, after all, New York, a largely urban state, not Texas or Wyoming, with a very different political profile.

Had the bill passed, it would have set a standard––somewhere in this big country––that animal cruelty in rodeos is wrong and should not be tolerated or allowed.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Won co-sponsors, but not big group support

I reached out to legislators, obtained some co-sponsors, and then the bill died because legislators were not hearing from their constituents.

The reason they did not hear from the people they represented was primarily that the large wealthy groups––with cumulatively millions of members––did not promote this bill and did not help their members contact their legislators.

In spite of many years as an animal activist, I was shocked to see this.

Some of the groups in their communications with members never even mentioned the bill, which could have prevented so much animal suffering.

Those that did mention it, and have themselves documented the cruelty of rodeos, did nothing more than mention it and suggest, “Contact your legislators.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

Why “Contact your legislators” does nothing

This is largely useless advice, as it does nothing to actualize the process of pushing a bill into law.

Rather than offer their members an email supporting the bill that just required a click from members that could be sent to legislators––a process they regularly use for animals and issues they care about––they abandoned the animals used and abused in rodeos.

Telling members of big organizations to contact their legislators does not recognize reality.

Many animal advocates do not know who their legislators are, don’t feel comfortable working independently on an issue, and are not sufficiently knowledgeable about what exactly is done to animals in rodeos.

These members needed the guidance and support of the organizations they thought would help animals.

They did not receive it.

N.Y. legislators did not know what part of a calf is roped

The members of the New York legislature I contacted knew nothing about rodeos. Nothing.

They did not know what animals take part, what is done to them, what their experience must be, and where they end up.

Some did not know that rodeos exist in New York. Some did not know this bill had been introduced. I think it is fair to say that legislators––as a rule––do not spend their time reading about cruelty to animals on the websites of groups that define themselves as protectors of animals.

It would be nice to able to ask rodeo animals if they feel protected by these groups.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Snort! Whinny! Hee-haw!

What really stands out are the choices that some of these groups pursue.

They often spend their time, energy, staff, and money trying to stop cruelty to animals in a country or industry that hides the abuses it engages in.

I am grateful for their efforts and hope they continue to try to stop these abuses.

But it is not a good idea to ignore the cruelty close at hand if one wants to sensitize the public to what animals experience.

Even the horrific cruelty done to walking horses is not often seen by most people outside of the former Confederate states, albeit that walking horse shows arguably outdraw rodeo there, or did before the late Clant Seay began promoting walking horse show boycotts.

(See “Greatest anti-soring advocate of all time” Clant Seay dies at 76.)

See Rodeo has had free pass from humane groups for 60 years, recalls Cox. (Beth Clifton collage)

What does it say when blatant cruelty is promoted as entertainment?

But the abuse of horses, steers, and even sheep [mutton-busting] in rodeos goes on throughout the U.S., mostly unchallenged.

The far-away cruelty is the preferred target for big group animal advocacy campaigns, while open, public, in-your-face cruelty is ignored.

Beth & Merritt Clifton

How does this pattern help animals in the long run?

The final insult here in New York City is when the most prominent New York channel, New York 1, promotes rodeos every single time they show up at Madison Square Garden.

What does it say when the media sees cruel events using animals, but does not see or recognize or understand the cruelty involved, and instead promotes these events as great entertainment?