Media Release
08/03/09
CRUEL, UN-AUSTRALIAN SPORT MAKES BLIGH’S QUEENSLAND ICON
VOTING LIST
Anna Bligh wants voters to consider choosing rodeos as an iconic Queensland event
for the 150th anniversary celebration of Queensland’s statehood. A rodeo cannot
provide good welfare for the animals involved and frequently puts participants in
hospital with serious injuries. This is hardly an event that warrants iconic status or
taxpayer funding.
In 2008 Anna Bligh commissioned a report estimated to cost the taxpayer $50,000
plus into whether the Mt Isa Rodeo was worthy of considerable further taxpayer
funding to promote it as a major rural, tourist event.
10 years of monitoring rodeos in Australia by the nation’s peak animal advocacy
organisation, Animals Australia, of which Animal Liberation Qld is a member group,
has demonstrated repeatedly how abusive they are to animals, (there is not even a
veterinarian present), how dangerous they are for participants and how frequently the
industry’s own Code of Practice is violated.
In early 2008 Today Tonight exposed the cruelty involved in the wild horse race
event, deemed an undesirable event even by the Australian Professional Rodeo
Association (APRA) itself.
Correspondence with Anna Bligh’s office and the Queensland Events Corporation on
our concerns about rodeos have yet to produce the courtesy of a reply.
The Queensland government is currently drafting new Standards & Guidelines
(Standards are legally enforceable requirements) for rodeos held in this State.
The only Australian attribute of the Mt Isa & Warwick rodeos is their location.
Rodeos are not representative of traditional Australian stockmanship skills and are a
highly Americanised form of entertainment. Steer wrestling and calf roping were
introduced into Australia from the USA “Cowboys of the West” tradition in the 1930s
and 1950s respectively.
Animal Liberation Qld calls on Anna Bligh to make public the consultant’s report on
Mt Isa rodeo, to drop rodeos from the short list of iconic events and to ensure her
government cleans up this industry in the new legislation currently being drafted.
DVD footage of the 2008 Mt Isa rodeo showing roping events, horse activity, a
(sanitised) wild horse race and competitor injuries is available upon request from
Cynthia Burnett 0412 100 539/3379 2461.
Further information:
1) Wendy Parsons, Rodeo spokesperson Animals Australia 0418 831 361 or (08)
8272 4004
2) Cynthia Burnett, media spokesperson Animal Liberation Qld 0412 100 539
NEWS 
