BOB MOEN Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, August 1, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Cheyenne Frontier Days officials met with members of an animal rights group to hear its concerns that certain events at the rodeo are cruel to participating animals.
While nothing definitive came of the meeting Wednesday evening, Frontier Days officials said they are looking into one of the group's concerns. Both sides described the meeting as cordial.
SHARK, or Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, advocates banning steer roping from rodeo and wants Frontier Days to change its calf roping event by eliminating so-called jerk-downs, in which a calf is pulled straight back when roped around the neck by a rider on horseback.
The Illinois-based activist group earlier this year presented videos showing horses being shocked with hand-held devices to make them buck at the Cheyenne rodeo. Frontier Days banned the use of the devices before this year's rodeo, and SHARK officials said they saw no horse shocking over the nine-day rodeo in late July.
Mike Kobliska, an investigator with SHARK, said both sides listened to the other's positions and arguments.
"They were very straightforward with things that they are going to change and things they aren't going to, at this point anyway," Kobliska said.
Frontier Days spokesman Bob Budd said the rodeo will not eliminate steer roping but is looking into possibly reducing or eliminating calf jerk-downs.
"We are not going to remove it from the event based on one individual's dislike," Budd said.
The practice of jerk-downs has been something Frontier Days and some rodeo contestants have talked about over the last couple of years, he said.
But the rodeo can't ban jerk-downs overnight because of the large number of contestants, stock contractors and others involved in the event, he said.
"There's a whole lot of people who feel vested in these decisions, and you have to go through that process, and that's what we're doing," Budd said.
In addition, he said, Frontier Days has to make sure any changes don't run afoul of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, which sanctions the rodeo.
SHARK President Steve Hindi said his group will continue to press its case against steer roping.
"We're going to keep hammering away at that," Hindi said.