RSPCA condemns Adelaide Entertainment Centre bull riding rodeo

The RSPCA has claimed a bull riding competition being held in Adelaide this weekend is unethical and inhumane and should not have been approved by Adelaide Entertainment Centre management.

RSPCA animal welfare advocate Dr Rebekah Eyers said the society wrote to the venue six months ago, urging it to cancel the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Adelaide Invitational on animal welfare grounds.

Dr Eyers told the ABC "we're very disappointed that the Adelaide Entertainment Centre would promote this type of event.

"What sort of message are we sending to our children when we promote a rodeo or a bull riding event as family entertainment?

"They profit from stressing animals for human entertainment ... but still the Adelaide Entertainment Centre decided to go ahead and run this event."

Dr Eyers said the use of equipment to get the bulls to buck placed extreme stress on them, adding "bull riding is based on provoking that stress so that the bulls will perform an extreme type of bucking.

"They're often trying to charge the riders once they've managed to get rid of them. Sometimes the bulls are so stressed that they end up running at solid objects within the arena."

Adelaide Venue Management, which operates the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, declined to comment to the ABC.

However, PBR Australia General Manager Glen Young, said no laws were being broken and insisted the animals are cared for.

He said standards within the industry around the treatment of bulls had improved within recent years, stating "they're getting a lot more looked after - they've got the animal nutritionists coming in to create their diets, they're regularly vet checked, they're lasting longer.

"After the sport they've got a breeding program that they're valuing too, so these animals have definitely got a better life than what they had two decades ago."

Young claimed RSPCA representatives had been invited to witness this weekend's event, as happened in interstate bull riding competitions.

Young accused some critics of the sport as not wanting "to be educated", and said there was strong support for the sport.

Dr Eyers said bull riding and rodeo events should be banned by law, as they have been in other jurisdictions.

She concluded "these bulls are not athletes, they don't choose to participate in these events,.

"When they're experiencing a bull riding event they don't know how long the ordeal is going to last and they don't choose to have flank straps, spurs and prods used on them."

"If you look at the way that rodeo events work, if you look at the way bull riding works it is basically a showcase for using animals, stressing animals, for the sole purpose of human entertainment - that in itself is a form of violence."

Image courtesy of South Australian Tourism Commission. 

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