Another Australian rodeo ... another horrible example of animal cruelty. This time the footage is from the Warwick Rodeo in southern Queensland this weekend just been. WARNING: If you love animals you'll find the vid hard to watch.
What you can see is a bull named Buckle Up falling and breaking either his leg or hip. He attempts to stand and walk, dragging his leg and collapsing on it a number of times.
The next 30 minutes(!!) were spent trying to get Buckle Up out of the rodeo ring. Rodeo clowns taunted him; a ute was used; and other bulls were let loose in the ring to shepherd him out - all of this despite his clear distress and awful injury causing him to collapse repeatedly.
After half an hour of prolonged pain, Buckle Up was finally herded onto a truck. In their clumsy and careless efforts to move him, the organisers of the rodeo may have broken more than one section of the Queensland Animal Care and Protection Act. Really though, would rodeos be the first thing to spring into your mind when thinking about "animal care and protection"?
Queensland isn't the only state where rodeos still take place. In fact, every state and territory still allows them (except the ACT...which stands for Anti-Cruelty Territory, right?). If you believe that Australia in 2012 is no place for this kind of cruel treatment of animals, all in the name of entertainment, then join with 1000s of others to make the pledge in saying "NO" to rodeos.