Facing a packed crowd of men in cowboy hats on one side and a spirited group of animal-rights advocates on the other, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors struck a compromise that will preserve the future of rodeos while banning wild cow milking, one of the sport’s more popular local events.
Rodeos can no longer feature the attraction where lactating beef cows are separated from their calves and chased in the arena before being roped, tackled into submission and forcibly milked.
In the same unanimous vote instituting the ban, the supervisors on Tuesday decided against prohibiting spurs or bucking straps used by rodeo cowboys to provoke bulls into bucking, or the ropes that tug the animals around or tie them down.
Local ranchers say that gear is core to the sport itself, and that a ban would have threatened to kill off a time-honored tradition of the American West and the cattle industry.
Supervisor Richard Valle assured rodeo enthusiasts that the board’s intent was never to hurt the sport. But he also agreed with animal-rights supporters that cows face too much mental and physical stress during the milking event, especially when none of the rodeo animals can consent to their own participation.
“Animals, they don’t step up to the podium,” Valle said at Tuesday’s packed meeting. “They don’t get to speak. Who speaks for them?”
For years, some Alameda County residents have criticized how rodeo animals are treated, accusing the sport’s participants of cruelly deriving entertainment from what amounts to torture.
In 2019, the supervisors similarly banned mutton-busting events, where children leap onto the backs of sheep and force them to go for a ride. The act is unnatural to sheep, which aren’t evolved to let humans ride on their backs, and veterinarians said the animals were often left injured by the fan-favorite activity.
“If you look at (animals’) behavior in these rodeo events, it is completely different from how they would behave in the wild, or just out in the field, which lets us know that these ropes, these straps, are making them do things that they would not naturally do,” Almira Tanner, a Berkeley-based organizer with the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere.
Although wild cow milking is not formally sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the event is a staple of local rodeos, including the Rowell Ranch Rodeo in Castro Valley that had its 100th annual event earlier this year.
“Wild cow milking is one of the few events that’s intended for both our local cowboys and cowgirls,” said Janet Lemmons, who owns and manages the saddlery at Rowell Ranch. “For a lot of the other events, you have to be a pro… that’s why we fought so hard to protect mutton-busting.”
Rodeo enthusiasts at the meeting insisted the animals they use are treated with love and care, and that ranchers are well-trained to make horses reflexively buck without physically hurting them.
“You’re not going to hurt a $60,000 investment,” Jake Larson, a lifelong Alameda County rancher and rodeo participant, said of his horses. “That’s your friend, a part of your family.”
But animal-rights supporters pushed the supervisors to adopt more laws for the sport, noting that the film and television industry has similar regulations to ensure the safety of non-human entertainers.
Colby Staysa, president of the Livermore Stockmen’s Rodeo Association, said after Tuesday’s meeting he was appreciative that the county’s ban had not extended to spurs, bucking straps and ropes.
Few jurisdictions in the country appear to have implemented such a restrictive law. The Los Angeles City Council earlier this year supported a similar policy but has yet to formally approve it.
Veterinarians on both sides of the rodeo debate in Alameda County have fundamentally disagreed over whether the sport causes physical or mental injuries to bovine and equestrian animals.
At least when it came to controversial rodeo equipment, Supervisor David Haubert placed himself on the pro-rodeo team, saying the gear is “widely accepted all over the country” and “pose no cruelty to the animals.” He also worried aloud that these rodeo bans could lead to future proposals to restrict meat consumption.
And despite voting with the board to approve the ban on wild cow milking, Supervisor Nate Miley was incensed that the county was preoccupying itself with animal rights at all, saying issues like poverty and the pandemic should take precedent.
He suggested that future proposed laws should go through advisory committees in the communities where rodeos are held before the county deals with them.
“I want to apologize to all of the county’s roughly 10,000 employees, county department heads, agriculture heads and others, because this matter has taken up time that we cannot regain,” Miley said.
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