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An animal safety organisation is renewing calls for the Government to ban rodeo after three animals died in events over the holiday period.

SAFE alleges three animals were killed in the space of three days between Christmas and New Year and a horse suffered “degloving” after getting its hoof stuck in a shoot.

New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association president Lyal Cocks confirmed there had been “three incidents” of animals being euthanised and that another horse had been injured but was recovering well.

Cocks said rodeo was “the most scrutinised” animal sport and did not believe it should be banned because of these “rare accidents”.

“What else are we going to ban in society because of accidents?

“Rodeo has been around for what 70-odd years, we’ve got a large membership, we’ve made significant changes based on government reviews since 2018. We’ve got oversight, we’ve got an extensive welfare assurance system in place now.”

SAFE chief executive Debra Ashton told the Herald that New Zealand has not witnessed this level of deaths in rodeo since 2019, when four animals died.

“We just don’t think animal welfare can be prioritised at rodeo, which is why essentially the Government needs to put an end to it.”

Safe CEO Debra Ashton. Photo / Safe Website

Ashton said all rodeo should be put on hold while the code of welfare is reviewed.

“Animals are subjected to fear, stress, risk of injury and in the worst case as we’ve seen just in the past few weeks, death. So this is all for the sake of entertainment and the animals don’t understand that, in their eyes this is completely terrifying.

“People see one side of it, they see the crowd cheering, they see cowboys on horses or on bulls and probably it looks like a bit of fun. But behind the scenes, animals do suffer.”

She said there was “nothing Kiwi” about rodeo at all.

Cocks told the Herald there was “no evidence” to show the animals were mentally stressed and said if an animal was unhappy or distressed, they would not be used for competitions.

“A lot of time and expense goes into breeding, raising, training, preparing for rodeo competitions by approved stock contractors and by the owners, so any loss it’s like losing your pet.”