I feel a need to speak up for the sport of bullriding. I am an avid animal lover, vegetarian and a fan of bullriding.mainly the PBR (professional bullriding). I watch the American PBR live on my computer, but it’s over for the year now. I have watched the video of the bull that was injured at the Warwick rodeo. I dont think what happened was cruel; it was sad and distressing to watch. I think at the time the officials and bullriders did their best. I have watched the video over and over and what happened was, the bull hipped himself in the chute while coming out. You must remember how strong a bull is, especially bucking bulls, because they are trained to buck and some bulls want to get out of the chute and buck as soon as they can and that is sometimes why they play up in the chute. It’s not from any cruelty, like some people think, but this bull hipped himself with such power that it made the bull fall over in the opposite direction. This is how the bull broke his leg. Now, yes I agree, the incident could’ve been dealt with better but it’s easy to look back and go on about it in a negative way. Something positive needs to come out of the accident to prevent or minimise this sort of thing happening to another bull. I’m not an expert on the Warwick rodeo but, as a fan of the PBR, I can see those chutes are pretty ancient. Why not upgrade them or put some padding in the chute…..why not get together as a rodeo community, have a meeting to make better strategy to deal with injured bulls? It seems everyone was caught offguard when it happened…but now it has. Why can’t all these groups get together and form ideas and think of a way of getting better chutes to protect bulls when they hip themselves and also make it more safe for the rider. If Warwick is Australia’s richest rodeo, then put money back into the upkeep. I love going to the Warwick rodeo just to see bullriding live, because I can’t get out much to go to big PBR events. And it’s important the bullriding is there, but if you don’t have plans and strategies for every situation to do with the sport, then please do not have it anymore. It’d break my heart, but I prefer that to a bull with a broken leg. Also I wish people who make nasty comments about bullriding and rodeos learn more about what they are talking about. Thank you for your time.
Ruth Beckey
