Commercialized cruelty hides behind “culture” & pols follow the money
LOS ANGELES, California; ROCHELLE, Illinois––A Los Angeles City Council bill to ban rodeo, pending since December 2023 and set to expire on July 18, 2026, appears likely to be bucked off the council agenda by opposition from Arts, Parks, Libraries & Community Enrichment Committee chair Ysabel Jurado.
Jurado, elected in 2024, still has half her Los Angeles City Council term left to serve.
Bob Blumenfield, who introduced the proposed rodeo ban, will be term-limited off the Los Angeles City Council when the current session ends on December 16, 2026.
Rodeo defined as violence to animals
Parallel to rodeo bans already in effect in neighboring Pasadena and Irvine, the proposed Los Angeles ordinance defines a rodeo as an “exhibition, performance or competition for live public entertainment.”
The proposed ordinance would prohibit bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, and any other events that involve physically taking down an animal, roping an animal, or attempting to ride a bucking animal.
Los Angeles City Council member Monica Rodriguez, first elected in 2017, re-elected without opposition on June 2, 2026, and not term-limited off the council until 2030, “introduced an amendment for potential exemptions for cultural activities, such as American Indian, Native American, Indigenous Rodeo, Mexican Charreria and Escaramuza events that do not involve the prohibited aforementioned activities,” reported Jose Herrera for City News Service on May 26, 2026.
“For example,” explained Herrera, “the trick roping that is performed by horse riders without lassoing animals or choreographed riding to music would not fit the definition of rodeo.
Rodeo ban doomed in committee
“Since then,” Herrera said, “the matter has been on hold with supporters of the ban waiting on elected officials to take the next steps.”
But Jurado made clear in a June 18th, 2026 prepared statement that she intends to keep the proposed rodeo ban in committee until it dies.
“This ordinance was introduced and developed before I took office,” said Jurado. “Since it came before my committee, my office has worked to understand the history of the item, the stakeholder process, and the concerns being raised by both animal welfare advocates and members of the Black and Brown rodeo communities.
“I remain open to a constructive path forward,” Jurado concluded, “but I do not believe the
City should advance an ordinance affecting culturally significant communities without a fair, transparent, and collaborative process.”
Bull-riding & ICE
Rodriguez meanwhile clashed with Eric Shabsis of Last Chance for Animals, who alleged in an argument for the rodeo ban that, “Corporate rodeos bring ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] … the same masked units that terrorized Los Angeles over the past year.”
In fact, as Susanne Rust and Melissa Gomez of the Los Angeles Times pointed out on June 9, 2026, “In 2008, the Border Patrol began sponsoring the Professional Bull Riders, the largest competitive bull-riding league in the world,” viewing the bull-riding audience as a potential pool of recruits for agent work.
But Rodriguez called Shabsis’ statement “Exploitive, frankly disrespectful, and infuriating,” and “kind of a last-ditch-effort to suggest to my community why they’ve been wrong the whole time.
“It’s infuriating that there would be an attempt at exploiting that,” Rodriguez continued, “and we don’t forget. We don’t forget because our community continues to endure these types of assaults every day.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“ICE out! Rodeos out!”
But Unchainedtv host Jane Velez-Mitchell, introduced by Herrera as a “Former KCAL news reporter, a Latina and animal rights advocate, also “alleged that ICE is going into rodeos to recruit agents, who will then go on to detain Latinos suspected of being in the United States illegally,” Herrera summarized.
Asked Velez-Mitchell, “Why would Los Angeles provide a venue and a platform for ICE to do its dirty work?
“ICE out! Rodeos out! Let the people of Los Angeles have a cruelty-free city,” declared Velez-Mitchell.
“Torturing animals in rodeos is not a celebration of Latino culture That is an insult,” Velez-Mitchell added at a June 9, 2026 hearing on the rodeo ban.
“Almost half of the population of Los Angeles is Latino: 1.8 million people,” Velez-Mitchell continued “How many of them do you see riding around on bulls, wearing cowboy hats and sombreros? This is cynical political theater. I dare say most of the sombreros in Los Angeles are in this room right now.”
Ogle County covers butts on steer-tailing
In Rochelle, Illinois, meanwhile, on the outskirts of the Chicago metropolitan area, the Ogle County Zoning Committee on June 9, 2026 unanimously voted to revoke the special use permit that allows Rancho La Esperanza to hold steer-tailing contests.
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness drone videos have since 2022 exposed extensive violence at Rancho La Esperanza to both steers and horses on 21 separate occasions.
On May 24, 2026, for example, the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness drone videos documented 14 separate instances in which the skins and hair was ripped completely off of the tail bones of running steers when mounted charros tried to throw the steers down by their tails.
(See Ogle County last in Illinois to move rears re steer-tailing, alleges SHARK.)
On June 18, 2026, however, the full Ogle County Board elected to delay revoking the Ranch La Esperanza special use permit.
“The board indicated they wish to review the violations and give the property owners the opportunity to address the allegations,” reported Superhits 93.5 radio news from Rochelle.
(Facebook photo)
Activist convicted
Momentum toward the revocation appeared to stall after Showing Animals Respect & Kindness campaigns director of Jodie Wiederkehr, 56, was convicted on June 17, 2026 after a two-day trial in Rochelle of “harassing Ogle County dispatchers and making a false report of a shooting ” at Rancho La Esperanza on May 25, 2025, summarized Shaw Local correspondent Payton Felix.
The charge of false reporting is a Class 4 felony in Illinois. The count of harassment is a misdemeanor.
Wiederkehr called the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office 27 times, at instruction of Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi, to report alleged violations of the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act that Hindi described to her by telephone.
Hindi was at the scene, piloting a drone and documenting the alleged abuses on video. Wiederkehr was not present.
“Ogle County dispatchers Taylor Burke and Susan Anders separately testified,” Felix wrote, “that reports of animal cruelty related to the rodeo could only be taken in person due to department protocol.”
“I saw someone get shot!”
Eventually, Felix narrated, “In a call to Anders, Wiederkehr asked if police would investigate if she said she saw someone get shot.
“In one call to Burke, Wiederkehr said, ‘I saw someone get shot.’”
Continued Felix, “Ogle County Sheriff’s Captain Kyle White was dispatched to the property to investigate. No ambulance or other first responders were sent, according to court testimony.”
Said White, according to a body camera recording, “I know it’s a B.S. complaint. I have to check it out though.”
Representing Wiederkehr, Chris Carraway of Animal Activist Defense Project at the Sturm College of Law in Colorado tried unsuccessfully to present a “defense of necessity,” an approach which has had limited success in cases of intervention against alleged cruelty to animals.
Carraway told Felix of Shaw Local that the verdict against Wiederkehr will be appealed.
Summarized Felix, “’It’s important to recognize this was not a sincere report of a crime,’ Carraway told jurors in his closing statement.”
Sisters Rodeo sued for $11 million
In Sisters, Oregon, “Two spectators injured when a bull leaped over an arena fence and into the crowd at the Sisters Rodeo two summers ago have filed lawsuits against the rodeo and its livestock contractor, seeking more than $11 million in combined damages,” Alma McCarty reported for Portland-based KGW television news on June 11, 2026
“The bull, named Party Bus, cleared the fence during his first rodeo appearance and charged into the bleachers and concession area, trampling both plaintiffs,” described McCarty.
“In the first lawsuit,” McCarty said, “Bend resident Allison Hickey is seeking $9.25 million, alleging the bull knocked her to the ground, crushing her right shoulder and right calf.
“The second lawsuit was filed by Ridgefield, Washington residents Kristin and Andrew Wert, who are seeking more than $2 million.”
Their case, McCarty explained, “states Kristin Wert was ‘violently attacked from behind, bucked into the air and trampled.'”
French judge rules bullfighting is not a sport
In France, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals writer Elena Waldman reported on June 9, 2026, five activists, including the French influencer Jeremstar, were acquitted earlier that day on charges of disrupting a sporting event for having entered the Nîmes bullring during the Feria des Vendanges in September 2025.
The charges were filed under a law written to address soccer hooliganism.
(Daniel Leventhal photo)
Wrote Waldman, “Moments after a bullfighter killed a bull, the influencer jumped into the ring holding a sign denouncing bullfighting, while two fellow advocates leaped in with him—and one even broke both his feet when he landed—to draw security’s attention and give Jeremstar a better chance of reaching the center of the arena.”
The judge threw out the charges, Waldman explained, because bullfighting is not legally recognized in France as a sport.
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So, what now, are we as Americans supposed to worry about the culture of people who come to the USA from other countries, when it means hurting animals for “entertainment”?
What about bullfighting… is that next? Should we defend cockfighting and dogfighting if people claim that those activities are a part of their culture?
I thought that as Americans, we are supposed to welcome others with open arms, be kind, compassionate and giving – I hope that doesn’t apply to people only. As a horse owner for 40 years, I know that rodeos are torture for animals; they are anything but art.
A complicating & often overlooked aspect of the rodeo issue in Los Angeles, and indeed throughout the Southwest, is that rodeo traces origins to the Native American horse cultures and Spanish settlers who dominated the region for 200 years before any of it was part of the U.S. or settled by other people of European descent.
What most of those defending rodeo on cultural pretexts fail to realize, however, is that Pope Pious V in the 1567 papal bull De salute gregis dominici forbade bullfighting as an entertainment “more proper of demons than humans,” making not only arena-style bullfights but also all related activities technically illegal throughout the Spanish empire.
Further, both rodeo as we now know it and steer-tailing, as practiced by anyone, are first documented as pursuits of Caucasians, not of either Native Americans or Latinos, and were first commercially promoted by Caucasians. These are essentially as much transplanted aspects of culture as are beer and baseball, arriving in Mexico and the Southwest at around the same time.
For further historical details, see Charreada steer-tailing & horse-tripping defense flunks history, art, & logic and SHARK video shows dogs baiting bulls at Calif. Salinas Rodeo 2019.
Unfortunately, it is much easier to document historical falsehoods than to persuade those who have embraced them that they have been badly duped.
A truly sad outcome. Some emails to the City Council and the L.A. TIMES could be helpful for future legislation.
Letters email, LOS ANGELES TIMES: letters@latimes.com
LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL:
Councilmember.Hernandez@lacity.org, Councilmember.Nazarian@lacity.org, Councilmember.Blumenfield@lacity.org, Councilmember.raman@lacity.org, Councilmember.Yaroslavsky@lacity.org, Councilmember.Padilla@lacity.org, Councilmember.Rodriguez@lacity.org, Councilmember.Harris-Dawson@lacity.org, Councilmember.Price@lacity.org, Councilmember.Hutt@lacity.org, cd10@lacity.org,Councilmember.Park@lacity.org, Councilmember.Lee@lacity.org, Councilmember.Soto-Martinez@lacity.org, Councilmember.Jurado@lacity.org, Councilmember.McOsker@lacity.org, Armando.Bencomo@lacity.org
Another “cultural relativity” excuse for horrific behavior; can you say female genital mutilation too?
This is why people think politicians are COWARDS.
Ms. Velez-Mitchell is correct, of course.
Culture is meant to evolved with the times and with increased knowledge.
Many of us could cite numerous practices which have been abandoned in various cultures because they are no longer valid or expressive of societies in these times. I don’t care who you are or what culture(s) you come from. If you defend cruelty, for any reason, I oppose you.
Rodeo and its associated cruelties should be relegated to history, as well.
Sharing with gratitude.
The words of Cesar Chavez bear repeating (from a 12/26/90 letter to ACTION FOR ANIMALS):
“Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.” Words to live by.
I’m super anti rodeo. I stopped going to the Midwest Horse Fair (3 miles from me) twenty years ago because they have a rodeo in addition to lots of non-abusive horse events such as carriage driving, liberty shows, trail classes, etc.
However, I think prohibiting “exhibition, performance or competition for live public entertainment” is a pretty loose wording. I performed for years (5-12 hours out of the entire year) with my positively-trained dogs at libraries, on stage, and on TV. Zero abuse or coercion, and they were off-leash and choosing to work with me for treats and tug games, in every single training session and every performance. I also competed in agility competitions for decades, and dogs LOVE running agility, it’s a super fun game for them. You can’t force a dog to run 6 yards-per-second around a course taking obstacles as they go; they’re doing it because they love it (and get lots of treats during training!). So I’d hate to see things like those prohibited.
But rodeo and wild animals in circuses has to end.
The United Kingdom (England/Scotland/Wales) outlawed all of rodeo back in 1934, followed by The Netherlands. Can the U.S. and the rest of the world be far behind?
I am pleased to agree with all of the previous comments that cruelty to animals, no matter in what culture one finds it, is the mark of a unforgiveable drive to dominate that which can’t fight on an equal footing and/or a perverse character that finds an adrenaline rush in hurting another being and causing it to suffer.
There is NO EXCUSE for this macabre taste of causing acute misery to sate one’s rancid desires. It is beneficial that when a society comes to maturity and understands and accepts this fact, it strikes that ‘activity’ from its social roster, as some countries and some U.S. states have done, and this is to be applauded.
To use the tired excuse that it is ‘culturally acceptable’ to have cruelty to animals, such as that found in rodeo, be a form of ‘entertainment,’ is totally unacceptable, and those who find it reprehensible will continue to fight for its removal from our social calendar for as long as it takes to do so.
I think we’re all tired of the over-used “culture” reference meant to justify animal abuse.
At one time, it was part of Roman culture to pit humans against lions for the sake of entertainment, yet we don’t see that today. Society has evolved; we don’t need to cater to those who haven’t or refuse to just so that they can continue exploiting and harming animals.
Scroll through comments on cockfighting posts on social media, and you will see an untold number of ignorant justifications about why the sport is okay or a long-held “tradition,” so organizers and participants are entitled to engage in animal cruelty.
Charreada is no more dangerous to animals, than high school football is to students. Don’t be duped by vegan propaganda
Randolph M. Janssen, as usual, failed to disclose that he was registered agent for Federacion Mexicana Charreria USA, a Texas domestic non-profit corporation registered on December 22, 2017, now listed as “voluntarily dissolved.”
High school football players are voluntary participants, unlike the steers abused in steer-tailing, and wear helmets and pads to prevent injuries. Further, no part of football involves tackling participants in a manner that strips skin and flesh from bone. No such injury is on record in the entire history of organized football, but stripping steers’ tails of skin and flesh, exposing bone, has documentedly occurred as often as 14 times in a single recent steer-tailing competition.
High school football has a concussion rate of 10.4 per 10,000 athlete exposures, and an overall injury rate of about 38 per 10,000 exposures. The hundreds of steer-tailing events videotaped in entirety by Steve Hindi and the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness team have typically had injury rates running at 30% or more of the animals used, in part because steers are used over and over, 10 to 20 times in a day, after suffering injuries that would end a high school football player’s career.
Mr. Janssen,
Regarding your claim that “Charreada is no more dangerous to animals, than high school football is to students” I say you are full of shit.
I propose a meeting/debate between the two of us at a place of your choosing, anywhere in the United States with adequate notice. The meeting will be video recorded, and each of us will get a complete, unedited copy of the recording to do with as they see fit.
You bring your evidence, and I’ll bring mine, which will be video documentation recorded by my associates and me within just the last few years.
I have been challenging steer tailers to debate for years, but for all their talk, I have yet to find a single individual who walks the walk. Will you be the first? I hope so.
Reply here, for everyone to see. Then let’s get down to the preparations.
I look forward to meeting you.
Steve Hindi, President & Founder
SHARK
Apparently, and predictably, Mr. Janssen has chosen to not respond to my challenge. Not very macho, Randy.
This December 12, 2022 report in the L.A. TIMES by reporter Susanne Rust, is worth another look:
https://www.dailypress.com/2022/12/12/as-california-mulls-ban-rodeo-animals-face-violent-and-deadly-casualties-broken-backs-legs-and-skulls/