{"id":3240,"date":"2023-03-27T13:14:10","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T03:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=3240"},"modified":"2023-04-10T13:16:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T03:16:49","slug":"rspca-calls-for-end-to-rodeo-roping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=3240","title":{"rendered":"RSPCA calls for end to rodeo roping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A study published recently in the journal <em>Animals<\/em> has concluded that the rodeo event known as calf roping is cruel, terrifying, and stressful for the animals involved, and should no longer be considered an acceptable competitive sporting event or form of entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-author and RSPCA Australia senior scientific officer Di Evans, said the study provided further evidence that the practice of calf roping was arguably rodeos\u2019 worst animal welfare issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe know that calf roping causes unnecessary and unjustifiable suffering to the animals involved. It includes injury risks such as damage to the windpipe from the lasso, bruising and broken ribs from being violently yanked off their feet and being forced to the ground, and choking from the tightened rope around their neck and being dragged along the ground,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Believed to have evolved as a competitive sport, when the horses previously used on USA ranches to capture calves for procedures like castration or dehorning were replaced by motor vehicles, the practice is now increasingly regarded as cruel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Described by veterinarian and a former president of RSPCA Victoria Hugh Wirth, as \u2018horizontal hanging\u2019, and by ethicist Bernard Rollin as \u2018problematic animal use\u2019, Evans said the video footage used in the study clearly showed roping was distressing and frightening for the calves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re confronted with strange sights, loud noises, are separated from other calves, and literally then run for their life as they\u2019re chased by a rider on a horse. An animal\u2019s behavioural and emotional state is a crucial part of good animal welfare, so it\u2019s vital to consider this as well as their physical state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With some rodeo calf roping competitions using individual calves up to three times in a day, and with few standards limiting the use of animals used in rodeo schools within defined periods of time in most jurisdictions, the study concluded greater protection under animal welfare legislation was necessary for rodeo calves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe study gives further proof that calf roping cannot be justified in 21st century Australia, and subjecting animals to such cruelty is completely out of step with community expectations. It\u2019s no wonder 67 per cent of Australians are concerned about the welfare of animals in rodeos, according to research conducted in 2022,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The RSPCA is calling on all state and territory governments to put a stop to calf roping, and urges businesses to also take a stand by refusing to support rodeos, especially those that include calf roping events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the practice is legal in Queensland, NSW, NT, Tasmania and WA, calf roping is effectively banned in SA and Victoria because of a minimum body weight of 200kg for cattle. Rodeo events are banned in the ACT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018Behaviours expressed by rodeo calves during different phases of roping\u2019 is available at <a href=\"http:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ani13030343\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"http:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ani13030343\">doi.org\/10.3390\/ani13030343<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne Layton-Bennett<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A study published recently in the journal Animals has concluded that the rodeo event known as calf roping is cruel, terrifying, and stressful for the animals involved, and should no longer be considered an acceptable competitive sporting event or form of entertainment. Co-author and RSPCA Australia senior scientific officer Di Evans, said the study provided [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[284,58,113,2517,75],"class_list":["post-3240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ban","tag-cattle","tag-news-2","tag-rodeo","tag-rspca"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":398,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":398,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"A study published recently in the journal Animals has concluded that the rodeo event known as calf roping is cruel, terrifying, and stressful for the animals involved, and should no longer be considered an acceptable competitive sporting event or form of entertainment. Co-author and RSPCA Australia senior scientific officer Di Evans, said the study provided further evidence that the practice..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",1688,1125,false]},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"284":{"name":"ban","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ban"},"58":{"name":"cattle","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cattle"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"2517":{"name":"rodeo","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=rodeo"},"75":{"name":"RSPCA","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=rspca"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",300,200,false],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",305,203,false],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",400,267,false],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",600,400,false],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",1024,682,false],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",130,87,false],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Calf_roping-CREDIT-C.-Goodwin.jpeg",1688,1125,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3242,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions\/3242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}