Photo: JASON CONNOLLY / AFP / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners Tuesday unanimously recommended that the City Council ban rodeos within city limits, citing concerns that the events are inherently cruel to animals.
The commission voted 5-0 for the recommendation after several members of the public and Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Staycee Dains spoke in strong support of a ban.
No one spoke against the ban.
A City Council committee passed a proposed ordinance in December 2022 that would have prohibited the use of electric prods, shocking devices and other implements used in rodeos or similar events. The full council never voted on that ordinance, however, and the council instead is switching its focus to an outright ban on rodeos.
John Popoch, deputy chief of staff for Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who co-authored the original motion in 2021, told the commissioners that the council made the switch at the suggestion of the city's Equine Advisory Committee to avoid potential confusion over the kind of events that would be included in the ban.
Popoch, who described the effort as "a labor of love for council member Blumenfield," said the council would be taking up the matter in a couple of weeks. He said the ban would include the six events under the state definition that the city also uses to define rodeos, but will not include equestrian events.
"I'm hoping this will be another sign of the city's care for animals" and "preventing unnecessary violence toward sentient creatures who don't have a choice in the matter," he said.
Dains said she did a lot of research ahead of the item coming before the panel, "and all of the organizations (involved with sanctioning and regulating rodeos) acknowledge that animals are harmed.
"The best rodeos will have a vet on site ... To me, that's an acknowledgment that this process is inherently unsafe for these animals," she said. "This is not about preserving culture. Hundreds of years ago, animals were rounded up from the plains, so you had to physically tackle animals. That doesn't exist anymore.
"I hope we would all agree that just because something was done hundreds of years ago does not mean that it merits preservation. Nobody's life will be destroyed or hindered or harmed when we protect animals from abuse," Dains said.
The City Council originally asked the city attorney to draft a proposed ordinance in early 2021, modeling it after a 1992 ordinance enacted in Pittsburgh that Los Angeles officials say has worked well in its 30 years of enforcement.
"Rodeos often use a number of inhumane implements ... to encourage aggressive behavior in animals to produce an entertainment product. Animals suffer significant injuries during common rodeo events such as bull and bronco riding, steer wrestling and calf roping," the City Council motion stated. "Many animals are put down as a result of injuries sustained during these events. ... It is time for our city to act in the interest of animal welfare on this issue as it has in the past for other issues."
A ban would end the annual Los Angeles appearance by the Professional Bull Riders tour, which holds events at Crypto.com Arena in February.
The two-day 2023 PBR stop drew 12,529 fans for its Saturday night event, with about 20 animal rights demonstrators outside the arena.
"This passed committee unanimously late last year. I wished it would have passed council by now because it breaks my heart that more animals will suffer this weekend. But we were working hard to make sure it will pass soon so this can be the last of it in L.A.," Popoch told CNS before the PBR event in February.
In passing Tuesday's recommendation, the LAAS Commission also urged the council to take up the matter as quickly as possible.
PBR events focus on bull riding and do not include other traditional rodeo events. The tour has fought back against complaints of cruelty, running an ad prior to its 2023 tour stop that stated: "Buck the L.A. City Council. The Only Thing Being Tortured is the Truth."
Sean Gleason, CEO and commissioner of Professional Bull Riders Inc., has called the proposed ordinance "unnecessary legislation" that will cancel events that he says benefit the local community.
"If it passes, we will not have events in L.A.," Gleason told City News Service previously. He added that PBR has many rules in place to ensure its animals are treated well, and offered to "invite L.A. City Council members to come to Crypto.com (Arena) ... to learn about the animal athletes who are the real rock stars of the sport, get the best care and live a great, long life -- four to five times longer than animals not fortunate enough to compete."
This is the second time the commission has approved a recommendation to ban rodeos. The board voted for a similar recommendation on March 12, 2019, but only two current commissioners were on that board.
Pasadena banned the display of wild or exotic animals on public property in 2015, a law that applied to circuses and rodeos. Irvine banned rodeos in 2011, and Laguna Woods and Chino Hills have also banned them.
Other cities and counties -- including Alameda County in Northern California and Clark County in Nevada -- have passed more narrow prohibitions on specific rodeo activities without banning the events all together.
Rodeos are banned in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and Vancouver, Canada banned them in 2006.
If the City Council eventually passes the ban, rodeos could still take place in areas of Los Angeles County that fall outside Los Angeles city limits.
The 37th annual Industry Hills Charity Pro Rodeo is scheduled this weekend at Industry Hills Expo Center in the City of Industry. Events include bareback riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, bull riding and saddle broncs, according to the event website.
The event funds local nonprofits that provide services to disadvantaged children in the San Gabriel Valley.