Two sides lock horns

run and be all crazy, and then they could hurt themselves or run into the fence. They say it’s tight, but it’s not, and they say we put the testicles up in there, but how many people have tried to claim ACC for putting bulls testicles up in a rope? None.’’ He smiles wearily and shrugs. ‘‘It’s all based on what they think is happening. None of them have been here to see the animals on the farm. They just put out what they want the public to believe.’’

And there’s the thing, the further you go down the track of looking at both points of view, things eventually come back full circle.

At the centre of that circle? Two opposing forces who believe passionately they are right.

This becomes very apparent when I discuss with Macdonald a piece of footage that has been doing the rounds on social networks. It was filmed by an animal activist at a Parklee bull ride held at Manfeild in Feilding two years ago.

There is a bull in a pen and a group of cowboys are cajoling it. Macdonald says it is to ‘‘upset the animal and make them act in a wild way. These are domesticated animals and they want them to perform by causing stress to make them seem wild. But it is all a show’’.

But Bird explains the slapping, electric prodding and tail twisting as the cowboys getting a stubborn bull to move forward from the pen to the chute.

‘‘What’s the point in getting the bull fired up in the chute? The competition doesn’t start until it gets out of the chute, so when they say we were doing that to get it wild, it doesn’t make sense. And that bull is in a lead-up race, not a chute. The gate was open into the chute, but they don’t like to make that bit clear. We use a prodder when we need to, but we don’t activate it every time. So in that video it was activated two, maybe three times.’’

Roger shakes his head. It makes him visibly upset.

‘‘It is very different from the way they tell it. Very different. They don’t want to know what actually happens.’’

The Rodeo code of welfare states that electric prodders must not be used on animals other than adult cattle and they can be used if a bull is being moved and it has somewhere to go. But animal welfare organisations such as the Wellington Animal Rights Network think the use of an electric prod is wrong in any circumstance.

Spokesman Paul Christeller compares electrocuting a bull to doing the same to a 4-year-old child.

‘‘You wouldn’t would you? My approach to animal advocacy is that there is no moral distinction between human and animals. Society need to have an urgent conversation about the pain we inflict on non-human animals for trivial gain. There is no justification for it.’’

The Birds are adamant their bulls are treated well and get a good life. They breed bucking bulls for the rodeo circuit and say their animals live at Parklee for years.

‘‘Whereas a breeding bull will live for six to eight months and then he goes to the works, our bulls buck for one round and then

‘‘If you pit an 800 or 900 kilogram animal against an 80 or 90kg man, who’s going to win?’’ Shane Bird