Northland rodeo cancels 2020 event due to animal cruelty protesters

Thursday, 28 November 2019

Animal rights activists are claiming victory after an annual rodeo was cancelled due to financial pressures.

But the Mid Northern Rodeo Club says it will be back and bigger than ever in 2021, with a festival aimed at a broader audience.

Animal rights organisation Safe said the majority of New Zealanders did not support rodeo and that was impacting both sponsorship and gate sales.

'The public is voting with their wallets and [the clubs] are strapped for cash now,' spokesman Will Appelbe said.

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Animal rights activists, backed by Green MP Gareth Hughes, were calling for an end to rodeo, saying the practice was cruel to animals for the sake of entertainment.

The movement was having some impact on sponsorship with New Zealand's oldest rodeo, Tua Marina Rodeo in Marlborough, holding its last event in February.

Warkworth's New Year's Day rodeo was now the only rodeo in Auckland. A petition had been launched asking the Rodney Local Board to stop the event being held on its land.

But Appelbe said the Mid Northern event, held in Maungatapere near Whangārei each January, was a particularly troubled event with 2017 protesters capturing footage of 'brutal' animal treatment.

'The resulting fallout prompted sponsors to withdraw their support. The New Zealand Animal Law Association has since brought a private prosecution against the animal handler.'

Protesters this year were pushed and shoved at the event, and bullied when they tried to record the activities, Appelbe said.

'The cowboys were quite confrontational, especially at Mid Northern last year … yelling, using quite horrible slurs.'

But Mid Northern Rodeo Association secretary Barbara Woolhouse said it was the unpleasant tactics of animal rights protesters that scared sponsors away.

'When you get landed with over 100 phone calls a day of people abusing you, it's not very nice,' she said.

'It goes the other way as well – we have people come to us and say 'those people are so horrible, we see how you look after your animals and we'd love to sponsor you'.'

The Mid Northern Rodeo took good care of its animals, including having plenty of shade and water for them to drink, she said.

Woolhouse believed the Mid Northern Rodeo was suffering from the same issues impacting the likes of local hall committees and other volunteer organisations: not enough people to volunteer and tight competition for the sponsorship dollar.

'Across the board, it's hard to get sponsorship.'

The 2021 event would be a festival including more food options and children's entertainment like bouncy castles, she said.

Lyal Cocks, the chairman of the New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association, said rodeos around the country were doing well but clubs were encouraged to work with other community events to reach a broader audience.

'We had a national final in Wanaka combined with a wine and food festival,' he said.

Animal rights activists had nothing to complain about, with four new animal safety measures were introduced by the New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association in 2018, Cocks said.

'I disagree with them, obviously, they haven't got a basis for it.'

But Appelbe said until practices like calf rope and tie, steer wrestling and bull riding stopped, activists would continue to protest against rodeo and call on the Government to outlaw the events.