August 9, 2022

Dear Friends,



Today, August 9, 2022, Alameda County will be holding its Board of Supervisors' Meeting. There is a proposed ordinance (5.08) to ban wild cow milking and the use of bucking straps, spurs and non-release ropes during rodeo events in Alameda County. “Scrutiny continues to exist due to the potential harm to rodeo participants and animals specifically relating to the event of wild cow milking and the usage of specified devices such as bucking straps, spurs, and non-release ropes," reads part of the proposal. Wild cow milking is a team-based competition to corral a cow and hold it still long enough to get milk into a bottle and rush to a waiting judge as fast as possible.

You can see details on the proposal here.

If you live in the area, please attend the meeting at: 

Alameda County Administration Building Supervisors' Chambers
1221 Oak Street
Fifth Floor, Room 512
Oakland, CA

If you live outside the area, please email the board members:

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 
[email protected]

Keith Carson, president, email - [email protected]
Nate Miley, email - [email protected]
Richard Valle, email - [email protected]
Dave Brown, email - [email protected]
David Haubert, email - [email protected]

You can also call into the meeting using the following guidelines here.

Please share far and wide. 

Propose talking points include:

* Rodeo has nothing to do with ranching or preserving Western American culture or history.

* It is not a sport - in a sport, all participants are willing and of approximate skill level. In rodeos, there are the willing contestants and then there are the animals forced to participate and endangering their very lives. 

* Every humane organization in the country condemns rodeos due to their inherent cruelty and fatality rates.

* Rodeos are not family-friendly events. Teaching children violence leads to more violence - look at all the school killings by students!

* The list of cities banning bucking straps, spurs and various other tools of rodeo is growing. Cities in California that ban rodeos are: Chino Hills, Irvine, Laguna Woods, Pasadena and soon Los Angeles.  

* The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) and the Netherlands have banned rodeos.

* Cesar Chavez said it best: "Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cockfighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.” 

* For more information on rodeos, see RodeoCruelty.com.

Your donations go to our investigations, not exorbitant executive salaries or fundraising.

SHARK can't continue without your support. Please donate here.