It’s a warm summer evening. The smell of popcorn wafts through the crowd. Country music fills the air. Children with painted faces run off to buy cotton candy. A cowboy on horseback gallops after a calf, bringing the animal to the ground with the throw of a lasso. He ties the calf, the crowd goes wild. It’s good summer fun.
Until you see things from the calf’s perspective.
You can’t see a thing through this pen you’re trapped in. It’s dusk. You’re exhausted from the crowded truck ride here. It was so hot today. But you are too stressed to drink water. Where is mom? You can smell other animals, but none of them are her. They smell like fear.
Deafening noises hurt your ears. It’s all so unfamiliar. A gate swings open. The lights are blinding. You do what your instinct tells you to do. Run! Your heart is racing as you realize there’s a massive animal gaining on you from behind.
And suddenly, it happens. Something catches your neck and jerks you off your balance. A creature is running towards you, but you are trapped in place. Before you know it you are slammed to the ground, the wind knocked right out of you. You want to cry out for mom, but your voice is so hoarse. Your ribs are aching with pain. As your legs are bound together, the noises grow louder and louder. What is happening?
The “sport” that this poor calf was subjected to is called “tie-down calf roping”. It’s popular in rodeos across America. Nearly all rodeo “sports” are terrifying for animals, but tie-down roping is especially dangerous. Catching a calf running at full speed by the neck can cause torn ligaments, bruises, broken ribs, backs, and necks. Slamming that calf to the ground increases the risk of injury.
Countless calves die in this rodeo event. Even more are killed in “practice”.
In 2013, the organization Showing Animals Respect and Kindness released a horrifying video of a calf’s death at Cheyenne Frontier Days. On day two of the PRCA-sanctioned event, a calf’s neck was snapped in the arena. The animal lay convulsing in the dirt as she slowly died.
So much footage and testimonies like these exist. We combed through hours of Veterinary Medical Board reports from California rodeos in recent years. Countless rodeo injuries and deaths have occured in recent years. Time after time, tie-down roping shows to be one of the most common sources of injury in the arena.
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association sees nothing wrong with promoting rodeos that practice this barbaric event. We’re calling for an end.
Click here to to respectfully ask PRCA to drop all endorsements of this cruel practice. Together we can save calves from this awful fate.
