Thursday, December 09, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Rodeo wary of wrongs in name of animal rights

PRCA on guard for activists trying to disrupt National Finals

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Ricky Canton competes in calf roping Tuesday in the fifth round of the NFR. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Nearly 50 security specialists from throughout the West Coast are at the Thomas & Mack Center to supplement Las Vegas and UNLV police officers during the National Finals Rodeo.

An Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agent and her bombing-sniffing dog make their rounds throughout the 10-day event.

Additional means of surveillance that event officials won't discuss are being employed to guard against terrorism.

But the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's security effort isn't primarily to protect the nightly crowds of more than 17,000 against an international threat of violence.

The PRCA is on alert for domestic foes.

One group of animal rights advocates was in Las Vegas for opening weekend, waging a verbal war against rodeo and alleging crimes are committed against the calves, steer, horses and bulls of the PRCA.

NFR officials remain on alert for more activist groups, believing an act meant to disrupt the rodeo could occur at any time.

A dispute could have been triggered by an incident at this NFR. A calf suffered a spinal injury in Friday's calf roping round and was euthanized Tuesday after being cared for at a local animal hospital.

According to a PRCA official, it was the first time a calf died from an NFR injury. Two years ago in the NFR, a bucking bull suffered a broken back in competition and met a similar fate.

Steve Hindi of Geneva, Ill., founder of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), held a sparsely attended news conference Nov. 29 in Henderson to rip the PRCA and rodeo in general for abusing animals.

Hindi used a video compilation of several 2004 rodeos to allege that various devices used in rodeo, like flank straps, which enhance the bucking efforts of horses and bulls, are inhumane. The video showed instances of misuse of battery-powered Hot-Shot brand cattle prods and the violent nature of calf roping and steer roping. (Steer roping is not an NFR event).

The Hot-Shot shown in the video was misused according to PRCA rules, and that could result in a fine once the video is authenticated, a PRCA official said. Misuse of the prod, which emits 5,000 volts compared with 50,000 volts from a stun gun, could result in a $250 fine. That amount progressively doubles for each recurring violation at a rodeo.

Calf roping is the NFR event most frequently targeted by animal rights groups. It was renamed "tie-down roping" by the PRCA a year ago apparently to deflect criticism.

The PRCA has instituted rules to protect calves, including limits on size and weight and a "jerk down" rule that disqualifies a roper if he jerks the calf to the ground while roping it.

The PRCA's "No Dragging of Calf" rule issues fines ranging from $25 to $250 and event disqualification if a calf is dragged after being roped, even if the movement is unintentional.

That rule was enforced in Tuesday night's fifth of 10 NFR performances and might have cost Blair Burk a PRCA world championship.

Burk was first in the world standings and would have been tied for the NFR aggregate lead after his calf roping run of 7.6 seconds. But within the six seconds the calf must remain tied, Burk's horse began to back up and the calf was dragged a few feet.

Burk's run was disqualified, wiping out what would have been a third-place finish worth $8,819. The lost run also dropped Burk out of contention for winning a $37,898 bonus at the end of the NFR if he had the best aggregate total in his event. Had the time counted, Burk would have started Wednesday's round tied for the aggregate lead.

Burk paid a hefty price for the PRCA's animal welfare effort.

The pressure being put on rodeo groups seems to be a battle between people from urban areas and people from rural areas, though Hindi said many of his group's members own or have owned horses.

"It's clear there are a lot of different thoughts about the western lifestyle and how some people view what we do," PRCA commissioner Steven Hatchell said. "Less than 2 percent of our society is agrarian based. This sport works hard from an educational standpoint and (animal welfare rule) enforcement.

"We're not perfect, but we do work at it."

Hatchell and other PRCA officials said that when a video such as the one produced by SHARK is delivered to the PRCA, it is examined first for authenticity and then to determine if the rodeos it depicts are among the 670 sanctioned annually by the PRCA.

Jim Nichols, PRCA director of rodeo administration, said contractors have been fined based on violations captured in the tapes.

"We've levied fines based on what we've seen on videos sent to us," he said, adding that submitted video "helps us and can be a deterrent to stopping someone from breaking our rules."

Animal rights activists often claim their efforts are ignored, and their skepticism is reinforced because the PRCA, a nonprofit membership organization, does not publish or publicly reveal the fines it levies.

"I see no problem with fines and see no problem with publishing fines," said Don Kish, one of rodeo's top breeders of bucking bulls. He has 450 bulls and 200 cows at his ranch near Red Bluff, Calif. Six of Kish's bulls are competing in the NFR.

"People have to answer for it when they break a rule," Kish added.

But PRCA fines are not very significant -- no veterinarian on site results in a $200 penalty, and at least three violations have occurred this year -- and they are kept within the organization.

"Our policy has been that the amount of fines has been confidential between the (PRCA) national office and the individual fined," Nichols said. "We may be getting to the point where we need to look at that. It might be time to change that policy."

Hindi said his group is opposed to any form of terrorism or violence. He calls some actions by the Animal Liberation Front or People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) "thuggery by punk thugs."

"It's way too easy to bust up some fur store windows and pretend you've done something for the animals," Hindi said.

But Hindi relies on verbal attacks, like calling the PRCA the "Rodeo Mafia." In a mass e-mail, he referred to rodeo contestants as "animal abusing sissy/cowards" and writing that PRCA officials and sponsors didn't attend last month's media conference because the "rodeo lurkers on this list may just want to crawl into a bottle of Jack Daniels (sic) after soundly beating their dog, wife and children (it's how they deal with stress)."

While ranchers and rodeo stock contractors disdain Hindi and others like him, Nichols shows more sympathy than anger toward rodeo's antagonists.

"They're just misinformed," he said. "They don't understand the sport and the western heritage and western way of life. If they knew anything about us they'd know we don't mistreat our animals. That's the furthest thing from our minds. Anybody who grew up in ranching knows how much we love our animals."