Vic Rivers, of Livermore, holds onto a milk cow during the wild cow milking contest held at the "Family Night" event at Robertson Park Stadium in Livermore, Calif., on Thursday, June 9, 2011. (Doug Duran/Staff)
When I was a kid, every year my family would attend the Rowell Ranch Rodeo in Alameda County and the Grand National Rodeo in San Francisco. I even campaigned for Grand National Rodeo Queen when I was 19 years old. I had a lot of fun watching the animals and imagining what it would be like to be a barrel racer or a bull rider. I could totally last 8 seconds, I thought.
But last month, I spoke in support of the Alameda County ordinance that would ban wild cow milking, tie-down roping, spurs and flank straps.
At these meetings, supporters often try to paint rodeo opponents as uninformed city folk. On the contrary, I was a horse girl who grew up in Clayton among neighbors who raised cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. I was vice president of my 4-H club and graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a doctorate in veterinary medicine. But I came to realize it’s wrong to cause animals discomfort and stress for our own pleasure.
After several hours of heated public comment, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to ban wild cow milking — a particularly violent event where men wrestle a frightened mother cow and attempt to fill a bottle with her milk. Rodeo supporters say these events mimic real ranching practices, but the tactics used in wild cow milking in particular reward aggression and rough handling, which are just plain bad stockmanship.
A good cowhand is patient, compassionate and makes sure she has the help and equipment necessary to perform a job that needs to be done. Cows, like us, produce milk only after pregnancy to feed their calf. If a cow does need to be milked to feed an orphaned or rejected calf, she should be placed in a proper pen or chute and rewarded with food.
Chasing and wrestling a cow for entertainment purposes, in front of a crowd, in a large open arena is disrespectful to the cow, is a betrayal of the human-animal bond and sets a bad example for how our children should treat others.
The fact that the rodeo industry leaders didn’t take it upon themselves to remove this event from the rodeo long ago demonstrates how we cannot rely on them to advance more compassionate practices via self-regulation. They are falling further and further away from a public that increasingly demands that animals be treated with kindness and respect.
Industry publications misled their followers, saying that this ordinance would effectively end animal agriculture and ban rodeo altogether. This is a common tactic used by the industry to fight any welfare reforms. They misrepresent the issue as “extremists trying to take away our meat and our dogs.”
This was true in 2019 when legislation was introduced in California to ban the cruel practice of fur farming and fur sales, which thankfully passed. We saw this in 2018 when 63% of voters passed Proposition 12, requiring that all meat and eggs sold in California come from animals housed with minimum standards. The industry tried to tell the public “extremists” were behind the measure. In reality, the extremist view is one that believes 1 square foot of space for chickens and 24 square feet of space for pigs is ideal.
It’s only a matter of time before flank straps, spurs and tie-down roping are banned. The rodeo industry leaders must face reality, look where the wind is blowing and make serious changes. If they truly love their animals, they should embrace compassion and strive to create a more just and less exploitative human-animal relationship.
Dr. Crystal Heath is a veterinarian from Berkeley and executive director of Our Honor, a non-profit organization that supports animal professionals in advancing ethical policies.
Originally published at Crystal Heath