Opinion: San Diego must stop subsidizing animal cruelty and ban rodeos

The city of San Diego and the Padres are complicit in perpetuating animal cruelty by planning to host a rodeo in coming months for the third time and promoting it as family entertainment.

I will never forget what I saw at the very first San Diego rodeo at Petco Park on Jan. 10, 2023. In the middle of the performance, a horse named Wako Kid bolted into a metal fence with a sickening thud. The crowd gasped as he crumpled to the ground, clearly gravely injured. It was horrifying, and it happened right in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

The following year was even worse. We all heard the news of how a late-term pregnant mare was forced into the arena with a tight bucking strap cinched around her belly. After just a few minutes of her “performance,” she collapsed, dying on the spot from a ruptured uterine artery. Her unborn foal died with her. Even more troubling was the conclusion of the San Diego Humane Society’s investigation, which determined that no criminal animal abuse had occurred in her death. This decision crushed any hope for accountability and reinforced a dark reality: There is no real justice for animals.

These were not freak accidents. They are the inevitable consequence of forcing animals into loud, chaotic and dangerous conditions simply for entertainment.

Animal advocates in our city, including myself, have fought for three years — holding protests, speaking before City Council, drafting legislation to ban rodeos in San Diego, providing education and outreach to the public, writing letters and articles in local newspapers, collecting signatures and sending emails to the San Diego Padres and to city representatives. Attorneys Bryan Pease and Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi have escalated the fight with both the Padres and the city of San Diego over their facilitation of cruelty on taxpayer-owned land. Their lawsuit has survived the Padres’ attempts to get it thrown out, and is expected to go to trial by the end of this year.

The San Diego Humane Society supports this campaign. It has released a powerful statement condemning the abuse inherent in rodeos and supporting a citywide ban. Last year, at a City Council meeting, Humane Society representatives, joined by Councilmember Kent Lee, laid out a simple proposal: prohibit just the three most inhumane practices — calf roping, flank straps and electric prods. Dozens of residents spoke passionately in support. And yet the majority of council members sat in silence, offering no comment, no leadership, no action.

That silence is even more troubling when considering the city’s financial involvement. It continues to funnel public money into this rodeo. Through the San Diego Tourism Marketing District, the Padres have been awarded $150,000 each year — of taxpayer money — to host the rodeo. In effect, San Diego isn’t just turning a blind eye to rodeo cruelty, it’s actively subsidizing it.

As if this were not enough, the San Diego Rodeo Alliance was formed immediately after the first Padres rodeo, with the mission of counteracting community efforts to pass a ban, recruiting lobbyists and corporate sponsors, and partnering with Native American organizations and casino owners in order to rebrand rodeos as “heritage” events. This strategy gives politicians an excuse to ignore the wishes of their constituents by claiming that putting any kind of restrictions on rodeos would be racist. But no amount of marketing spin can disguise the truth: There is no excuse for animal abuse.

The Padres and city leaders must decide: Will San Diego continue to bankroll suffering with public dollars, or will it finally stand with compassion, ethics and its own community values?

Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and allied groups will rally in December (the exact date is forthcoming) to demand an end to the Padres rodeo. I urge every resident and community organization to join us.

We will continue to speak up for the animals and for a city free from cruelty. It is time — past time — to end the rodeo at Petco Park, once and for all.

Bellah is a Latina scientist and community organizer with Direct Action Everywhere, focused on animal rights and environmental advocacy in the San Diego area.