California rodeo animals face violent and deadly casualties: Broken backs, legs and skulls
LOS ANGELES — As the Los Angeles City Council prepares to weigh in on a measure to effectively ban rodeos, a review of 21 years of rodeo animal injury reports shows a hidden, violent and deadly side to a sport heralded as an icon of American tradition.
A Times' review of the reports shows that since 2001 — when a state a law went into effect requiring all rodeos to have a veterinarian in attendance or on call — more than 125 animal injuries have been reported. The reports were written by attending or on-call veterinarians and submitted to the California Veterinary Medical Board. The reports were acquired via a public records request.
No reports were issued in 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009 or 2020. Only twenty reports were issued before 2010.
The reports document injuries ranging from minor maladies such as
