Video

Click here to see the abuse that animals endure in rodeos.

Click here to see a young bull stumbling and breaking a leg, horrifying onlookers, at the recent 120th Annual World's Oldest Running Rodeo.

Photographs

In Depth

To learn more about how animals suffer in rodeos, read PETA's Rodeo Factsheet.

Rodeo promoters say that the animals are wild and rough, but without the use of spurs, tail-twisting, and bucking straps cinched tightly around their abdomen and groin, these frightened and often docile animals wouldn't even buck. They are terrorized into action when men shove electric prods into them, twist their necks, yank them by their tails or legs, slam them to the ground, or otherwise batter them. The fact that most of these innocent animals are eventually destined for the slaughterhouse in no way justifies compounding their agony along the way.

THE PRCA: ALL BULL
Complaints about rodeos are forwarded to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), which sends the complainant a "soothing" letter saying that PRCA's "humane rules" protect the animals. Actually, these rules are worthless; they are rarely enforced, and when they are, the fines imposed on the cowboys are so small as to be meaningless in comparison to the big prize money being vied for.

BODIES BATTERED OUTSIDE AND INSIDE
Often, the animals' injuries are internal. Dr. C.G. Haber, a veterinarian who worked for 30 years as a meat inspector in slaughterhouses, saw scores of animals discarded from rodeos and sent to slaughter. Toughened as he was to animal suffering, the condition of animals from rodeos sickened him. He described them as "so extensively bruised that the only areas in which the skin was attached (to the flesh) were the head, neck, leg, and belly. ... I have seen animals," he said, "with six to eight ribs broken from the spine and at times, puncturing the lungs. I have seen as much as two to three gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin. Bullfights are merciful compared to rodeos. It's high time this cruel sport be outlawed in the United States."

Tell Corporate Sponsors to Buck the Rodeo Click here for a list of quick facts about rodeos. Think that animals aren't harmed in rodeos? That's a bunch of bull! Click here for our list of animals injured or killed in rodeos. Click here for a list of rodeo ordinances and state laws. Click here to read PETA's letter to the PRCA, asking for a ban on flank straps. To read PETA's letter to the governor of Wyoming, asking him to remove rodeo images from that state's license plates, click here. Click here to donate to PETA.

What You Can Do