LOS ANGELES — As the Los Angeles City Council prepares to weigh in on a measure to effectively ban rodeos, a review of 21 years of rodeo animal injury reports shows a hidden, violent and deadly side to a sport heralded as an icon of American tradition.
A Times' review of the reports shows that since 2001 — when a state a law went into effect requiring all rodeos to have a veterinarian in attendance or on call — more than 125 animal injuries have been reported. The reports were written by attending or on-call veterinarians and submitted to the California Veterinary Medical Board. The reports were acquired via a public records request.
No reports were issued in 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009 or 2020. Only twenty reports were issued before 2010.
