And now, during the rodeo season, it seems every talkback programme and opinion piece in mainstream media is having its say on the debate that threatens to have the sport consigned to the history books, which in turn will ultimately change the way animals are farmed or used for sport in this country.
Recently, more than 10,000 spectators enjoyed the two rodeos in Mid Canterbury during the Labour weekend break.
I commentated both of these events and enjoyed the family and student crowd interaction while they were enjoying the athletic ability of the stock bucking and running while the cowboys tried and failed or succeeded in each discipline.
The vet reports where filed and to my knowledge there were no serious issues to any of the rodeo stock at either event.
Whether you like the sport is not the point of this article but the backlash and fallout from the cyber bullying of sponsors and supporters is.
The admission gates and car parking at Methven Rodeo are controlled by the Methven Lions club for a fee of 10% of the gate. The money is used by the Lions for community projects as they see fit.
Many rodeo and other events take this opportunity to be mutually beneficial to community support organisations.
However, after the rodeo the national office of the Lions organisation in Auckland received numerous social media and email messages as well as negativity on animal rights social media pages attacking the Lions clubs for their involvement.
The kneejerk reaction or sympathetic response from the marketing manager based in Auckland (I’ll let you chose) resulted in a press release stating that Lions Clubs of New Zealand would no longer support rodeo.
This created a huge uproar in many of the rural Lions clubs around the country and many have chosen to ignore the directive from the head office still attending and supporting their local events.
However, many a rodeo sponsor has been attacked and in fact bullied and threatened by these animal rights groups with some heavy losses incurred. But this is not just a nationwide attack, NZ’s overseas markets have been sent messages as well.
What has this got to do with farming, I hear you say?
This is only the start.
Rodeo is the lowest and easiest fruit on the tree. Once that’s gone they will look to the next fruit up. Is it racing or equine events and then more attacks on farming as their self-importance and crusade grows in strength?
How do we know this?
Please take note of this post on the Anti Rodeo Action NZ Facebook page: “What we need is a licensing system where people have to apply for annual practising certificates to farm, making a requirement that they keep up with the understanding of good practice and understandings of sentience and animal needs and sit a test”.
The fact that we already have many auditing procedures built into our farming systems does not and will not hold any relevance to these people. They will want the test and licensing system designed by their own idealistic and, of course, well educated and reasonable team.
The ramping up of pressure by these keyboard warriors who quite often attack from behind a fake name and profile or in some instances many fake profiles to increase their presence has some real negative connotations for many a person involved with animals including Sally and her pet lamb and Molly and her pet cat, to the point where animal ownership will come with such huge negative pressure we will be forced to become vegans as our youth submit to the peer group pressure for fear of being outcasts in their more modern environment and in return coming home to tell mum and dad meat is off the menu.
There it is, the activists win one young person at a time.
One rural school recently sent home a colouring in competition from SAFE with the title ANIMALS FRIENDS NOT FOOD. That caused some real angst for many parents living on farms.
I really think now is the time to have a coalition of all sporting and commercial activities that involve animals in any form, representing the whole body against this negativity and attacks but, at the same time, all working together improving the standard of all to ensure the future of our way of life.
At the moment it seems that the loudest voice comes from the anti coalition hiding behind false names, attacking the rural support networks.
Remember, once a crack is formed water gets in and damage is done. Let’s be prepared because it seems they are.
