Source: By Nathan Baca and Kyle Zuelke of 8NewsNow.com
“The majority of the horses that we use are actually rescues…”
LAS VEGAS — Horse roping is called animal cruelty by some, and living history by others.
Clark County commissioners will decide at Tuesday’s meeting on whether to ban rodeos with controversial horse roping events.
Horse roping usually takes place at traditional Latin American rodeos, including one scheduled late September at South Point Casino. Animal welfare activists hope they can beat back a new attempt by two Clark County commissioners to allow the horse roping event to continue.
“The majority of the horses that we use are actually rescues. We bring them in. They’re undesirable horses that maybe didn’t work out as a saddle horse, have bad habits, or are abandoned, undesirable horses. We bring them in and we train them,” said Tobias de la Torre, the CEO of Charros Federation USA.
Charreada events typically have a horse run around in a circle with men on other horses chasing the horse. A roper will take a lasso and throw it to loop onto a horses legs. The Charreada event is meant to test the roper’s accuracy with a lasso. That lasso is not pulled — and if done correctly — the horse quickly gets free from the lasso.
Event organizers say intentional horse tripping is not allowed and accidental tripping is extremely rare. One incident happened two years ago in northern Nevada. But some local trainers claim horses suffer unseen mental damage from being chased at Charreada events.
“If you never physically abuse or physically mark your child, but you create psychological damage to them throughout their childhood, imagine the issues they’ll have — scars that run so deep that you can’t see. The scars will last a lifetime. We do the same things to these horses by chasing them and roping them,” horse trainer Mark Keyser said.
Clark County commissioners will debate the ordinance Tuesday which would continue the ban on intentional horse tripping, but allow licensed horse roping events. The ordinance is favored by Commissioners Chris Giunchigliani and Tom Collins. It’s uncertain how much support they can gather.
There is a petition online from local animal welfare activists pressing commissioners to ban all horse roping events and it has more than 850 signatures. South Point Casino tells 8 News NOW they are not selling any tickets for the September Charreada event yet because they are waiting on the county’s decision.
Click (HERE) to view video and comment at News 8
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Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse News
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
“Horse roping is called animal cruelty by some, and living history by others.”
I guess proponents of horse tripping see nothing wrong then with feeding Christians to the lions! Just because that’s how they used to do it doesn’t make it the ‘right’ thing to do. This is the most ludicrous argument ever…
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Undesirable horses have two options or should I say fates. Death by slaughter or torture for the amusement of others. Great world we live in.
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Unfortunately-these horses are tortured for entertainment and at the end of the season are sent to slaughter-don’t let them fool you into thinking they “train” these horses-just like our rodeos, these animals are sujected to torture to make them perform better. These rodeo “cowboys” mexican or american only care about selling tickets to make money and care very little about the animals. They claim it is there culture-well this is the 20th century time to move away from barbaric practices and move into the future – we all have to – leave the old barbaric ways in your old county.
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I know many people who train horses and never do they use tripping or roping in their training methods. These people are successful and they never turn out the so called bad horse. And i say F all this talk of culture. I hope they lose money hand over fist.
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Horse roping/tripping has NEVER been a part of AMERICAN culture & history – these foreign rodeos are from countries who inherently torture & abuse all kinds of animals for entertainment because of their HISTORICAL brutality & ignorance – bull fights & the running of the bulls, etc – it is historically American to protect animals’ welfare & we should never allow foreign interests dictate OUR history to us!!!!
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Why do some people only find enjoyment in the pain of others? Remember the burro roping in Oklahoma about a month or two ago? That roping event DID happen. Very sick people.
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Horse tripping is not training. They are using scared animals and maiming them or milking them in the process. They need to be hung out to dry on that lie. Where’s the soap.
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Maiming, not milking…
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We don’t need to import cruelty… we have plenty of our own.
And as for “skill”…
How much skill does it take to corner a terrified horse with two other riders corralling it so the roper can get the “perfect” opportunity? It’s like cheating and letting children win at games rather than giving them real competition.
In this day and age when we see all kinds of natural horsemanship demonstrations showing how you can “catch” and gentle a horse in a pen with no hardware or tack at all, why do we need to regress into barbarism?
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Horse hockey! What BS. Cruelty is cruelty and historically it is cruelty and the point is to send the horse down hard. Somersaults are thrilling. And these horse rarely make it to slaughter and are shot at the end of the day. The horses I have seen being tortured have always been lovely animals. No bad horse, remember? Only bad people. This is part of the insensitive world we are trying to change.
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Best way to change this would be to organize a boycott of the rodeos that treat animals inhumanely. More media coverage is essential so the unknowing public will become educated about what this type of “entertainment” entails. Protesters in front of the ticket office could draw attention.
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If you believe this is “OK” then you are as horrible as the ones committing the crime!!! It is nothing less than BARBARIC!!!! They scare the hell out of them, break their bones and what spirit they have remaining and once all the fun is over – load them into a truck to be slaughtered!!! How can anyone think this is “OK”!!!! Just like the earlier comment “Feeding the Christians to the Lions” !!! It is nothing short of animal cruelty at its highest!!! Shut down all these facilities – just another sick way for people to profit on the backs of defenseless creatures!!!! I think they should send those who enjoy this to slaughter!!! With the way our country is headed – history may very well repeat itself – be careful what you ask for and think is ok – because someday it may be you that is rounded up and waiting to be thrown to the lions – aren’t they already saying we are over populated for the our resources!! The one fact that always remains is, ” We Never Lack in Ignorance!!!
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Even Spain is moving away from barbaric practices-some cities are now banning bull fightng
http://news.discovery.com/animals/bullfight-spain-ban.htm
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I went to the site and signed the petition, it looks like they have 11 or 12 hundred signatures. Lets give them a little help.
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