Govt faces legal action over failure to ban rodeo events
Animal rights group Safe is taking legal action against the Government over its failure to end rodeo events.
Together with the New Zealand Animal Law Association (NZALA), Safe has filed proceedings against Agriculture Minister Damien O’connor and the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (Nawac).
NZALA and Safe said rodeo activities caused pain and distress to animals, in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.
‘‘Every year they cause torn ligaments, broken bones, bruising and internal damage. These injuries can be so severe that bulls and horses are killed,’’ Safe chief executive Debra Ashton said. ‘‘The
Government has been too slow to take action on rodeo, so now we’re taking this issue to court.’’
NZALA president Saar Cohen said the association had put regulators on notice about the ‘‘problematic legal status’’ of rodeo in 2018.
‘‘It is now time to ask the court for guidance on this legal issue. As lawyers, we are concerned that rodeo activities such as steer wrestling or calf roping are allowed to continue despite being inconsistent with the act.’’
Public opposition to rodeo events has grown in recent years, with heated protests, accusations of an attempt to cover up an animal death and repeated calls from animal welfare groups for the sport to be banned.
While the rodeo community has made changes to improve animal welfare, a Horizon Research opinion poll, commissioned by Safe in June 2020, found 51 per cent of respondents would support a ban on the use of animals in rodeo in New Zealand. Twentyfive per cent were against a ban.
The latest legal action is the second time Safe and NZALA have filed court proceedings to challenge codes of welfare under the Animal Welfare Act.
In 2019, the organisations filed judicial review proceedings, challenging the continued use of farrowing crates for mother pigs.
In a judgment released in November 2020, the High Court ruled O’connor and Nawac acted illegally when they failed to phase out farrowing crates.