Thread: ‘Steer tailing’ event won’t return to county

http://www.fund4horses.org/info.php?id=247

Horse Tripping ~ California

Mexican rodeo sparks clash over tradition, animal rights
by DENIS CUFF
Knight Ridder Newspapers


WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - (KRT) - A 400-year-old Mexican rodeo tradition is clashing with modern animal rights in California.

Organizers of the charreadas (rodeos) say the events are a proud and elegant cultural celebration of roping and horse-riding skills in use before California was American soil.

Animal rights activists contend some of the rodeo's activities are cruel. They have focused on two charreada events that call for cowboys to force running horses and steers to trip and tumble to the ground.

The sport attracted fresh attention last month when Contra Costa County, Calif., Animal Service Department officers raided a Mexican rodeo July 24 with 60 spectators at a rural home with a circular arena near Brentwood, Calif.

Officers with a search warrant confiscated four horses suspected of being tripped by lassos in violation of county and state laws.

Animal rights activists are pushing for stricter laws to watch over the Mexican rodeos whether they're held in public arenas or a growing number of private corrals and arenas out of public view.

"These rodeo activities are inhumane and cause serious injuries," said Eric Sakach, Humane Society of the United States regional office director in Sacramento. "Society has continually made progress in making things more humane against crude activities that were once considered entertainment."

Charreada organizers say their activity, the national sport in Mexico, are no more harmful to horses and cattle than modern rodeo events, if done correctly.

"The charreada (rodeos) give a sense of pride and dignity. They have been unfairly targeted by those who have misconceptions about them," said Marco Franco, vice president of the Federation of Charros of Mexico, a group that organizing sanctioned competitions.

A Tracy, Calif., contractor, Franco learned the charreada skills at his family's Sunol arena, once a host of many large rodeos.

He would like the state to lift a ban on an event in which cowboys lasso the front legs of a horse and tighten the noose to force the animal to fall or tumble to the ground. This is commonly called "tripping."

Animal activists say California should keep the ban on tripping, and also prohibit an event in which a cowboy on horseback yanks the tail of a steer or bull to force it to the ground. This is called "tailing."

Alameda and Contra Costa counties both banned tailing and tripping a decade ago and required a veterinarian at Mexican rodeos.

The California Legislature banned tripping statewide, but balked at outlawing steer tailing.

The county is keeping the four horses seized in Brentwood as evidence at its Martinez animal shelter. Animal control officials are preparing to turn the case over county prosecutors to decide whether to file misdemeanor charges against the property owner.

It would be the first prosecution of the tripping and tailing bans in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, authorities say.

Violators of the ordinance are subject to fines up to $1,000 or six months in jail, or both.

Eyewitness accounts, video of the rodeo and horse leg wounds consistent with tripping provide strong evidence the law was violated, Contra Costa animal control officers say.

"We have a problem with a rodeo when it injures animals," said Lt. Nancy Anderson of the animal services department, a specialist in policing cruelty against horses.

Authorities declined to release the suspects' identities while the case is under investigation.

Enforcing the law is very difficult because some of the rodeos occur on private land out of public view, said Dan Barrett, deputy director of the county Animal Services Department.

In the Brentwood case, the people at the rodeo denied tripping horses and tailing steers. They said the horses already had scars when they were purchased at an auction shortly before the rodeo, Barrett said.

Organizers of some of the Mexican rodeos buy light, undernourished horses because they are easier to flip to the ground, said Eric Mills, the Oakland-based coordinator of Animals for Action.

Franco said he can't say what happened at the private Brentwood rodeo.

But he said he would like to see informal rodeos registered to see they live up to the professional standards of the rodeos like one he helped organize last month in Sacramento.

"We get a bad name because of some of these small operations."

Franco said cowboys at his family's Sunol ranch did tailing and tripping without injuring animals for years before Alameda County banned the practices in 1993.

A cowboy lassos the horse with a grass-woven rope so the animal rolls to the ground.

Both the tailing and tripping date back centuries, he said.

Sakich of the humane society said he saw horses and steers injured during Mexican rodeos he attended over several years.

Once he saw a bull fall and break its leg when a cowboy yanked its tail at a rodeo in the Coachella Valley about six years ago, he said.

"They yanked him under the bleachers and left it there for days. Eventually, it went to the slaughterhouse," Sakich said.

Animal rights groups have rallied to support state legislation to ban steer tailing and require Mexican rodeos to have a veterinarian present or on call. The bills failed, though.

Franco sees the proposed stricter rules as an attack on a rural event that serves as a gathering place on weekends for Latino families.

Mills said the Mexican rodeos have many other skilled events that can continue without the tailing and tripping.

"Humans have done many cruel things in the name of tradition and culture," he said. "That doesn't make them right."

Brian,

Thanks for sharing this information and these articles with us. Very disturbing. I have more to share but don't have time right now. What is described in these articles is only the tip of the iceberg so to speak. There is much worse animal cruelty going on that this in Spain, Mexico, some Latin American countries as well as other parts of the world. Many people just haven't heard about it. Many are apathetic even if they do hear.

I am in no way excusing Americans for their cruelty. American rodeos are barbaric. One example, I watched and will never forget the horrible "screams" a horse made during a bucking ride in Sanford, NC in 1989 when his spine was snapped by contortions trying to rid himself of the flank strap. I've seen rope burns around the loin area of horses and some friends of mine documented the evidence by camera.

Annie

P.S. Okay, here is one link and about the only animal welfare group I'm linked to as far as online updates. I just don't have the time with illegal immigration. This group is very actively involved with exposing rodeo. Also, the head did some camera work and expose' south of the border on bullfights. Many mini cams here of animal crueltly and not for the faint of heart. Link: www.sharkonline.org

Here are a few more articles about steer tailing and horse tripping I didn't have time to post last night.





http://www.farmsanctuary.org/campaign/state_FLsteer.htm

Florida ban on steer tailing (SB 558 / HB 297)


Rep. Faye B. Culp (R, 57) and Sen. Nan Rich (D, 34) introduced legislation this session that would have prohibited the cruel practice of "steer tailing." On March 9, SB 558 passed the Senate, but the legislation died when the legislative session ended without ever seeing the House State Resources Council vote on HB 297.

Steer tailing, commonly perpetrated at rodeos for the entertainment of the crowd, involves grabbing a running steer by the tail and then dragging or slamming the animal to the ground. Both the steers and the horses used to chase them down are often terribly injured by this practice, which can rip the steer's tail completely off.

H.B. 297 & S.B. 558 would have made it a first-degree misdemeanor to intentionally drag a calf, steer, bull, ox, or cow by the tail in order to force the animal to lose balance and fall. The legislation also sought to increase the mandatory fines and incarceration periods for cruelty to animal convictions in general.

For more information, please contact campaign@farmsanctuary.org or call 607-583-2225 ext 251.



http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2003/ ... pping.html

October 17, 2003

Mexican rodeo contests enrage local horse lovers
MARK WAITE / PVT


A Nye County ordinance that took effect Sept. 8 makes horse tripping a misdemeanor.

The Nevada Legislature in 2001 amended state law allowing counties to make it a crime. Horse advocates told Nye County Commissioners Aug. 19 the ordinance was badly needed.

Organizers of charreadas, or Mexican rodeos, say the horses aren't intentionally tripped in their events.

Horse tripping, the practice of roping the front or hind legs of a galloping horse causing it to trip or lose its balance and fall, is practiced in three of nine events held as part of a charreada, or Mexican rodeo, according to the Animal Protection Institute.

"We believe that there's a horrible cruelty being perpetrated in Nye County in Pahrump as we speak. There's no state ordinance or state law that allows us to control it. We need something locally that will give us the power to stop it," Nye County Animal Control Officer Dawn Moore told commissioners.

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo, at the first reading of the ordinance in Tonopah Aug. 5, told commissioners, horse tripping has occurred in Pahrump.

"It did occur at one time in the Pahrump arena, (McCullough Arena). That activity was discovered and ceased and it moved into private arenas," DeMeo said.

DeMeo said one of his deputies reporting seeing horse tripping practiced in Pahrump, although it was legal at the time.

"The concern I have now is it doesn't become a backyard sport," the sheriff said, noting it actually wasn't a legitimate sport.

Nye County Sheriff's Deputy Craig Empey said he worked security for a charreada at La Hacienda Ranch at the south end of Homestead Road last spring. He left the event early after being turned off by the horse tripping.

"The first thing I saw was what poor shape the horses were in," Empey said. "I was raised with horses all my life.

"They have one person on the ground and two of the cowboys, I guess you want to call them, running this horse around with one of these guys tying a loop and throwing it in front of the horse causing it to fall," Empey said.

"They'd throw the loop in front of the horse so the horse would step in the loop, then they'd pull the slack up," he said. "I don't know what the reason for it is."

A few horse owners in Pahrump Valley spoke up before the commissioners, though none reported witnessing the event firsthand in local arenas.

Seb Johnson, a local animal trainer, said, "I personally witnessed it myself, horses were killed during the process of horse tripping. If we continue to let this happen or if we don't stop it immediately what will happen next - the running of the bulls in Pahrump?"

"We ought to protect our No. 1 mode of transportation that's been around for hundreds of years," Johnson said.

Horse trainer Barbara Dunning said California banned horse tripping way back in 1994, followed by states like Illinois and New Mexico. She said that forced the event to move into Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.

Dunning, quoting from information provided by the Animal Protection Institute, said before the sport was banned in California, one feedlot in Riverside was leasing 25 horses every weekend at $65 apiece for horse tripping events at charreadas.

After the charreadas, Dunning said of the horses, "Half of them were returned dead, half of them were so bad and in such bad shape that they had to be put down.

"If we judge how we act toward our animals and don't put a stop to this it really goes into the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. We really need to take an active stand on this," Dunning said.

Information from the Animal Protection Institute, sent to Nye County officials as backup for the meeting, states three events in charreadas that involve horse tripping are called piales en la lienzo, roping the hind legs; manganas a pie, tripping or felling a horse while on foot and manganas a caballo, tripping or felling a horse while on horseback.

Literature from the API states the charro is supposed to be a brave and skilled horseman who confronts the fury of a wild horse and brings the animal to the ground. But the organization adds: "Such romantic legend, however, has little relevance to the manner in which the rodeos are practiced today. "Killer" buyers purchase unwanted horses at auction and squeeze the last nickel out of these pitiful creatures by renting them out at about $65 per day, for a weekend of torture in the charro rodeos."

The API claims horses are sent to slaughter after the charreadas.

Hugo Lee, a co-owner of La Hacienda Ranch, said he plans to host a charreada Oct. 26 as a fundraiser for flood victims in Mexico. He said there were two charreadas held there earlier this year. Lee added he unsuccessfully tried to hold traditional American bull-riding events earlier this year.

Lee referred questions about the charreada events to Gabriel Velasquez, president of the State Charro Association of Nevada, who denied horse tripping is being practiced in Charro sanctioned events.

"If you are caught tripping a horse you will be fined and sanctioned for a year," Velasquez said. "What we did over the years, we respected the law, you can't trip them. We still do the event in the aspect of showing the cultural (aspect) and the ability of the charro to rope and trick rope, do his trick roping, jumping through the rope ... but we never knock them down. The horse comes by, you rope his two front feet and that's it."

While horse tripping was only banned in some states, Charro associations still didn't intentionally trip the horses in the remaining state, even though it was legal, Velasquez said. "We respect our other brothers in the Mexican rodeo who can't do it," he said.

"We don't want to break any rules and we don't want to be having any negativity but it is a cultural thing, something that came down from our ancestors and many, many years in this sport," Velasquez said.

Velasquez said he has been a charro contestant for 26 years, earning the title of state and national champion. In 1999, Velasquez said he placed fifth in the world in competition in Morelia, Mexico.

Velasquez said he acquired his horses for the charreadas at auctions of herds gathered at Indian reservations in Arizona.

"They've been out in the wild, now they're out in the corrals and have shelter and water and two meals a day," he said. "We bought eight wild horses, right now in the past week I bought six more, new ones. We use them for the rodeo and the moment and we buck them out."

Velasquez conceded, "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say there aren't animals that aren't hurt." But he said, "We're conscious of injuries and hurting animals."

"They catch the front feet and they show to the judge that the animal has been caught on the front feet but never the intention of pulling the animal down," Velasquez said. "If the animal is running and the rope gets down to the hock and the animal trips, has that happened? Yes that's happened."



http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2003/ ... eltrs.html

October 24, 2003

READERS REACT
The rodeo hall of shame


Intolerable cruelty

Thanks to reporter Mark Waite for his disturbing story on the inherent cruelty of charreadas ("Mexican rodeo contests enrage local horse lovers," 10/17). Perhaps it'll inspire some needed legislation.

As sponsor of the original legislation here in California to ban the brutal horse tripping event, I was intrigued to see the accompanying photo from Elko, home district of Nevada State Senator Dean Rhoades.

Senator Rhoades has twice killed a state bill by Las Vegas Senator Dina Titus to outlaw this cruelty, stating it did not occur in Nevada. Shame on him. All the horse pucky obviously isn't in just the arena.

Since California banned horse tripping in 1994, six other states have followed suit: Maine, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Oklahoma. Arizona remains a hotbed of this abuse. Two California counties (Alameda and Contra Costa) ban both horse tripping and steer tailing, and require on-site veterinarians for all rodeos. Nevada should follow suit.

"Steer tailing" ("las colas"), another standard charreada event, was not mentioned in the article. A running steer is grabbed by the tail by a mounted charro (cowboy), then slammed or dragged to the ground. I have video footage of tails being ripped off, and horses getting their legs broken when the terrified steer runs the wrong way. Some "sport!" It, too, should be banned. To their ever-lasting shame, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) joined the charros last year to help defeat a bill to ban steer tailing in California. So much for their touted concerns about animal welfare.

And now the PRCA dares to change the name of the calf roping event to "tie-down roping." Can you spell "hypocrisy"?

Do these Mexican rodeos in Pahrump have on-site veterinarians to care for injured animals? If not, they should. American-style rodeos, too. Rodeos always have on-site ambulances and paramedics to care for injured cowboys, and rightly so. The animals deserve equal time.

ERIC MILLS

COORDINATOR

ACTION FOR ANIMALS

OAKLAND, CALIF.

What a trip

Horse tripping -- now there's a manly sport. Right up there with shooting puppies and kittens. What, in God's name, could you get out of maiming or killing such a magnificent animal in such a barbaric way for no reason?

Gabriel Velasquez says we don't understand it because of the cultural differences. Bull. Animal abuse is animal abuse no matter what culture you hide it behind. He says he is having one of these massacres (oh excuse me - charreadas) Oct. 26 to raise money for the flood victims in Mexico.

If I was a victim and found out where this money was coming from, I would rip it in half and send it back to you, postage due. Mr. Velasquez also says that, "We don't knock them down. The horse comes by, you rope his two front feet and that's it." Excuse me?

Does the horse know he's supposed to stop before he crashes to the ground? I have a great idea. Let's have Mr. Velasquez run down Highway 160 while we all stand on the sidewalk with ropes. As he comes by let's lasso his feet. Now, keep in mind Mr. Velasquez, we won't be trying to trip you but you will fall flat on your face nonetheless.

I don't know who's the worst offender, the people who put these shows on or the ones who go to them. Why don't you start a new sport called Idiot Tripping? I guarantee you won't have a lack of participants.

TERI LOTTON



Here's another article I will just link since it also talks about regular rodeos

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/20 ... _full.html