The USDA is failing to keep rodeos in check. Too many times have they turned a blind eye to the scathing, unrelentless abuse and strenuous activities.

Animals including baby cows, horses, and bulls are brutalized throughout the rodeos. Oftentimes they are shocked with excess of 1000 volt prods, beaten, slapped, and have their tails wrapped around metal poles or twisted at painfull angles. They are pinched by poorly fitted equipment and the notorious “bucking strap”. Some of the events in rodeos include bull riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, saddle bronc riding, team roping, barrel racing, steer roping, and steer tailing. Animals are commonly required to run all day without food, water or proper medical treatment for the injuries they sustain. And yes, they sustain injuries. Dr. C.G. Haber, who worked as a federal meat inspector for more than 30 years describes the animals discarded from rodeos as being, “so extensively bruised that the only areas in which the skin was attached [to the flesh] was the head, neck, leg, and belly. I have seen animals with six to eight ribs broken from the spine and, at times, puncturing the lungs. I have seen as much as 2 to 3 gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin.”

Calves are very young when used, in fact they would still be with their mothers if they were not in rodeos. Under 300 pounds, they are forced to run above 25 miles and hours before being “clotheslined” to the ground. Sometimes they are flipped so forcefully they end up being several feet in the air and landing on their back. The calves often suffer broken necks or torn nuchal ligaments. Most calf ropers need to practice on calves before they can do it in rodeos, Dr. T.K. Hardy, a Veterinarian and calf roper stated that calf roping was expensive because two or three calves would be injured each session and need to be replaced.

Bulls and broncs sometimes have their back broken from bucking so hard against the pain. Others sustain hematomas, broken legs or or severed tracheas. Broncos are spurred in the shoulders which causes blunt trauma, they are ridden again without being given time to heal. They are also often so frantic they crash into fences and chutes.

Slaughter is also a huge issue within this “community”. Once animals are no longer entertaining or profitable they are sent to slaughter farms. Although the slaughter of equines is illegal in the United States, people still ship them to Mexico. Calves and bulls meet a similar fate here in America.

Rodeos only exist because of corporate companies like Coca-Cola, Dodge, Best Buy, and Marriott Hotels who sponsor them. Rodeos could end tomorrow if corporations were pressured into getting out of the industry. Help me out by signing the petition.