PETITION TARGET: San Diego City Council: Mayor Todd Gloria, City Attorney Mara W. Elliott, Council President Pro Tem Joe LaCava, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, Councilmember Henry Foster III, Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, Councilmember Kent Lee, Councilmember Raul Campillo, Councilmember Vivian Moreno, Councilmember Sean Elo-River, San Diego County Commissioners
In an incident all too common at cruel rodeos, a 6-year-old horse was taken away by ambulance after brutally smashing into a barrier during the 2024 San Diego Rodeo at Petco Park. The brutal event was allowed to occur even following widespread activism to stop it — including LFT’s petition and commentary at a San Diego City Council meeting.
Despite the advocacy of Lady Freethinker and other animal protection groups, as well as community outrage over the horse’s collapse in 2024, plans are underway to bring the rodeo back in 2025, according to CBS 8.
The 2025 rodeo will be a three-day event, where rodeo stars will compete for thousands of dollars in prize money – at the expense and suffering of animals.
“Entertainment is not a justification for cruelty toward animals,” San Diego City Council Councilmember Kent Lee said. “The city of San Diego has a history of caring for animals, including investing in our shelters, community vet clinics, and providing grants to local animal rescue nonprofits.”
Lee, who spoke out against the 2024 rodeo, continues to oppose the cruel practices associated with this event. In partnership with the San Diego Humane Society, he is working to get an ordinance passed that would forever ban rodeos in San Diego.
Horses, baby cows, and bulls used in rodeos often suffer horrific injuries, including broken ribs, pierced lungs, broken necks, and injuries to internal organs, as well as devastatingly painful deaths.
The otherwise gentle animals often have to be harassed to act out in the unnatural “bucking” and high-speed behaviors prized in rodeo arenas — including by being jolted with painful electric prods, stabbed with spurs, or irritated by uncomfortably tight straps around their bodies, according to the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association.
Other layers of cruelty inherent to rodeos include training for grisly events like calf roping by “practicing” on baby cows until they become seriously injured or die, and sending distressed and injured rodeo animals to slaughterhouses.
There’s also the issue of family separation. One of the companies associated with the rodeo noted that foals as young as 6 months old are taken from their mothers, burned with a brand, and then put in a pasture where they can “grow up to be outstanding bucking horses.”
LFT supports a ban on rodeos, and we will continue to campaign against this brutal enterprise to ensure that no rodeo is allowed to call the city of San Diego home. Sanctioned animal cruelty should never be tolerated— let alone presented as “entertainment” — and violence committed on defenseless and otherwise gentle animals should never “earn” cash prizes.
Other cities have already passed laws to keep cruel rodeos out of their communities — including Pasadena; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Leestown, Va.
Sign our petition urging San Diego City Council to pass an ordinance banning rodeos, so that this cruelty cannot return to San Diego.
