The American Rodeos: Entertainment at The Cost of Animal Welfare

People generally agree that harming animals is wrong. Yet when it comes to food and entertainment, we forget. We seem to disconnect the link between the living being and what is in front of us. The fact is, we are still harming or taking advantage of animals, even if it's for an event. 

The American rodeo season is coming up and many Americans love and enjoy it as a family tradition. Unfortunately, nearly all of the events rely on animals, primarily bulls and horses.

During this time, people forget that bulls and other farm animals are living beings who feel emotions like pain and fear. Before and after these events, many of them also feel stress and anxiety, and get severely injured. During these competitions they are ridden, chased, roped, and handled for human entertainment. Their role is to perform, yet they never chose this life. They are bred and transported for our pleasure. 

The Reality of Rodeo Entertainment

The events put the animals in stressful and unnatural situations in which they are put at risk. These include bull riding, bronc riding, steer wrestling, and calf roping. The animals face fractures, spinal injuries, broken ribs, tendon injuries, and many more, all for human entertainment. PETA has spoken on the issue adding heart attacks, aneurysms and many more to the list. 

“Those who manage to make it through unscathed are given

little time to rest or recuperate. They are loaded into trucks,

hauled to the next event, and forced to participate over and over again.

- PETA   

Steer wrestling and calf roping are difficult to watch, as you can see the fear in the calves' eyes as they are chased and wrestled, roped and thrown to the ground violently. 

Image of a calf being roped and thrown on his back for a competition.

So what is the point of training these animals for sport other than the entertainment and profit?

There isn't. 

Peta has recorded hundreds of reported incidents that have happened to bulls and horses during the events that you can see in this document.

The two most recent being: 

July 4, 2026: Maui, Hawaii: “An eyewitness reported that during the calf roping event at the Makawao Stampede, a calf got wrapped around a pole and was violently flung around.” It was reported that his neck broke and he died. 

June 29, 2026: Prescott, Arizona: “According to an eyewitness at the Prescott Frontier Days rodeo, a calf was pulled hard during the calf-roping event and did not get up again. Staff carted the animal off and it is believed that he died.”

This is an unnatural process for animals to go through. They begin their competitions in cages and are hauled around different cities at the mercy of their owners and companies. While there are certainly some riders that care well for their own animals, this does not mean there cannot be carelessness or harm in this environment. Horses and bulls still face injuries during these competitions.

The PCRA's Position on Animal Welfare

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) is the primary organization that runs many of the rodeo events throughout the year in the United States. Rodeo has become a major industry, with the PRCA reporting roughly $50 million in annual revenue in 2023.

When we take the time to decenter the competition and the contestants participating, it seems like the idea of animal rights is an afterthought and not included in their advertising. Who cares about the animals who are put into these circumstances when we can watch and gamble on the “cool” people riding them, right? 

According to its 2023 Annual Report,

"The PRCA upholds the standard of humane care of rodeo animal

athletes, and in professional opinion rodeo remains a healthy,

humane, family-oriented sport."

— Dr. Jennifer Schleining, Equine Veterinarian

The PCRA also states that veterinarians witness and manage the health and conditions of the animals first-hand and document their health well. The animals have chiropractors and regular check-ups. They also maintained a reported 99.9% animal safety rate during PRCA rodeos in 2023.

But these measures that have been taken… they do not change the fundamental ethical question: Should animals be used for entertainment in the first place?

Is there really a reason to control and train these animals for any reason other than for our own entertainment?

No, there isn’t.

Bred for Entertainment

Rodeo events are not ethical from an animal welfare perspective. They exist to generate profit and entertain people while putting animals' health and safety at risk. The animals forced to participate are bred and trained specifically for these events. It is an exhausting and dangerous life that they never chose.

The bulls are “bred to buck”. Rodeos use a flank strap that is wrapped around the animal's flank and has them buck as a defensive response. Over time the bulls associate the flank strap with bucking. And bulls aren't the only victims of this captivity in rodeos: "Many of today's rodeo stock providers have developed sophisticated breeding programs to allow them to breed horses specifically to buck." 

A whole new question to ask is: "Why are we so okay with forcefully breeding specific variations of animals for our own pleasure?"

Traditions are not always ethical simply because they have existed for a long time. Bulls and horses are living beings and not entertainment. They never chose to be bred for bucking, transported from event to event, or put into dangerous situations for a cheering crowd. If we truly believe animals deserve compassion and respect, then maybe it's time we start questioning whether rodeos should continue in the future.