Sense from O’Connor

Stuff reports:

The SPCA and SAFE even struggled to get support from Labour at select committee with West Coast MP Damien O’Connor pointing out the injuries from rodeo were no different to those suffered on the rugby field.

“My experience of the rodeo is that the calf ran off very happy and I ended up in hospital, so I was the one who suffered harm, which is often the case.”

O’Connor said it made no sense that cage fighting “with its questionable ethics” was acceptable but it was rodeos that people were trying to ban.

“The injuries that might be listed (from rodeo) – broken bones, legs, necks, damaged eyes, torn muscles – that all happens on the rugby field….many of those animals in the rodeo live a lot longer than they would otherwise in a normal farming system.” 

As Damien says, it is not the animals that tend to get injured!

Guy said rodeos were an “important part of New Zealand society” and had been “functioning well here for 40 years”

“My concern around banning rodeos is where do you go next? Is it races, is it circuses, is it zoos?”

No doubt they are next.