Two animals died at "Australia’s richest rodeo" at Mount Isa on 10 August and two Animal Liberation Qld volunteers were there to capture the horror. They filmed a dying horse who had tripped and flipped over during the ‘saddle bronc’ event, breaking his neck. They also filmed a steer whose broken leg was dangling and flapping while a rider was still on his back.
That same evening, while Qld Tourism Minister Kate Jones was donning a cowboy hat and proclaiming that the Mount Isa Rodeo was a celebration of "what is so great about the outback", we got the truth out. 7 News covered the story as a result of our media release and their online clip alone has now been viewed over 320 000 times. Along with Animals Australia’s sharing of our footage and our own social media we have reached well over half a million people, far more than attended the actual rodeo!
Here is ALQ’s footage of the two very unfortunate animals at Mount Isa Rodeo:
Two animals killed at 2018 Mount Isa Rodeo from Animal Liberation Queensland on Vimeo.
Along with the two deaths, we filmed serious injuries, plenty of falls and a huge number of frustrated and frightened animals, unable to understand why they were being taunted, prodded and spurred.
A fortnight earlier ALQ investigators attended an outback rodeo at Quamby near Cloncurry in north-west Qld. They witnessed a score of desperate animals trying to jump out of chutes, electric prods applied near animals’ anuses, tail twisting and pulling, chute workers kicking animals and the list goes on. We have followed up with cruelty complaints to RSPCA Qld about some of the abuses that were filmed.
Here is footage from Quamby Rodeo:
Abuse of bulls in chutes at 2018 Quamby Rodeo, Qld, Australia from Animal Liberation Queensland on Vimeo.
One positive note was that in 2018, Quamby Rodeo discontinued the calf scruffing/chute dogging event where untrained members of the public competed to place steers in head-locks and bring them to the ground in the fastest time. Our footage of this event in the past two years was provided to RSPCA Qld and resulted in warnings being given. Thankfully this rodeo took heed of the warning this year, but there remain other big concerns which we will continue to follow up.
WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! Donate to keep ALQ rodeo investigators on the ground in all parts of Queensland. Thanks so much for all that you do.