Crowdog
11-12-2002, 05:04 PM
Wed, Oct. 23, 2002
Suit: Rodeo bad for kids
By Dan Reed
Mercury News
Peggy Hilden won't let her baby grow up watching cowboys. And she doesn't want anyone else's kids doing it either.
In what may be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Hilden, on behalf of her son, Collin, and two animal rights groups are asking a San Francisco Superior Court judge to keep Bay Area schoolchildren from going to the free Grand National Rodeo day for students, which will be held at the Cow Palace on Thursday and may be repeated next year.
The California Education Code, the lawsuit says, forbids schools ``from teaching and encouraging inhumane treatment of animals.'' To the plaintiffs -- which include the groups In Defense of Animals and Action for Animals -- that's exactly what steer wrestling, calf-roping, bull riding and other common Old West rodeo fare is.
The event organizers say Hilden and the animal rights groups should lighten up.
``The animals are not abused,'' said Michael Wegher, CEO of the Cow Palace, ``because that's the people's livelihood. Some of those animals are better cared for than some people in the world.''
As many as 9,000 schoolchildren are supposed to show up for the performance Thursday, Wegher said. They loved it last year, and they will again. And, he believes, not a single impressionable mind will become twisted because of it.
Hilden's lawyer, David Blatte of Berkeley, who focuses all his work on ``animal law,'' fears the violence children may see could upset them. The suit, which Blatte believes is unprecedented, accuses school offices in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties of violating the law.
Gina Snow, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Unified School District, said children are only allowed to attend with parental permission, and that the decisions to participate are made by individual teachers. She declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit.
In the suit, Blatte contends that at the rodeo ``students witness men causing pain to frightened animals.'' He cites several instances in which calves or horses suffered broken limbs or other injuries. ``At least seven of the animals injured since 1982 either died in the arena or were killed as a result of their injuries,'' Blatte wrote. ``In 2000, a bull broke its neck.''
Wegher acknowledged that in 2000 a bull was killed at a matinee, non-school day performance. ``It wasn't planned, it wasn't intentional,'' he said. ``It's like driving on the freeway; sometimes accidents happen.''
For more than 20 years, Wegher said, schoolchildren have been going to the Cow Palace to see the rodeo animals. Last year, organizers decided to let them also see an old-style rodeo. ``It was so popular we decided to do it a second year,'' he said. ``They not only see a rodeo, but they see horse show events, working sheep dog trials, precision drill teams. It's a great chance for children who maybe couldn't afford a ticket, or perhaps their families don't have the time, to see the Western heritage.''
Blatte knows it's probably too late to stop the children from going to Thursday's rodeo. ``So the goal,'' he said, ``is to at least stop them next year and to get the school districts to start thinking about this.''
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/4348089.htm
Suit: Rodeo bad for kids
By Dan Reed
Mercury News
Peggy Hilden won't let her baby grow up watching cowboys. And she doesn't want anyone else's kids doing it either.
In what may be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Hilden, on behalf of her son, Collin, and two animal rights groups are asking a San Francisco Superior Court judge to keep Bay Area schoolchildren from going to the free Grand National Rodeo day for students, which will be held at the Cow Palace on Thursday and may be repeated next year.
The California Education Code, the lawsuit says, forbids schools ``from teaching and encouraging inhumane treatment of animals.'' To the plaintiffs -- which include the groups In Defense of Animals and Action for Animals -- that's exactly what steer wrestling, calf-roping, bull riding and other common Old West rodeo fare is.
The event organizers say Hilden and the animal rights groups should lighten up.
``The animals are not abused,'' said Michael Wegher, CEO of the Cow Palace, ``because that's the people's livelihood. Some of those animals are better cared for than some people in the world.''
As many as 9,000 schoolchildren are supposed to show up for the performance Thursday, Wegher said. They loved it last year, and they will again. And, he believes, not a single impressionable mind will become twisted because of it.
Hilden's lawyer, David Blatte of Berkeley, who focuses all his work on ``animal law,'' fears the violence children may see could upset them. The suit, which Blatte believes is unprecedented, accuses school offices in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties of violating the law.
Gina Snow, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Unified School District, said children are only allowed to attend with parental permission, and that the decisions to participate are made by individual teachers. She declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit.
In the suit, Blatte contends that at the rodeo ``students witness men causing pain to frightened animals.'' He cites several instances in which calves or horses suffered broken limbs or other injuries. ``At least seven of the animals injured since 1982 either died in the arena or were killed as a result of their injuries,'' Blatte wrote. ``In 2000, a bull broke its neck.''
Wegher acknowledged that in 2000 a bull was killed at a matinee, non-school day performance. ``It wasn't planned, it wasn't intentional,'' he said. ``It's like driving on the freeway; sometimes accidents happen.''
For more than 20 years, Wegher said, schoolchildren have been going to the Cow Palace to see the rodeo animals. Last year, organizers decided to let them also see an old-style rodeo. ``It was so popular we decided to do it a second year,'' he said. ``They not only see a rodeo, but they see horse show events, working sheep dog trials, precision drill teams. It's a great chance for children who maybe couldn't afford a ticket, or perhaps their families don't have the time, to see the Western heritage.''
Blatte knows it's probably too late to stop the children from going to Thursday's rodeo. ``So the goal,'' he said, ``is to at least stop them next year and to get the school districts to start thinking about this.''
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/4348089.htm