The annual Gilroy Rodeo sold out all three days for the first time in its history this past weekend, drawing approximately 5,500 attendees to celebrate the community’s western heritage in the heart of Silicon Valley.
“We were at capacity,” said Stacey Roberts, the rodeo’s arena director. “This is the first year that we sold out all three days.”
The Aug. 8-10 California Cowboys Pro Rodeo Association event featured multiple competitions throughout the weekend, including down roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping, bull riding, bareback riding, team roping, a junior rodeo, a ranch rodeo and more. The rodeo attracted participants from across the country and internationally, with bull riders from Brazil and a team roping duo from Hawaii among the competitors.
Roberts, a Gilroy native now living in Hollister, emphasized the event’s importance in preserving local culture.
“We’re in an ever-changing world, and I feel like it’s more important, especially living in the heart of Silicon Valley, that the community understands the western heritage and our culture here in South County,” she said Aug. 9 at the rodeo grounds on Dunlap Avenue.
During the three-day event, the rodeo’s “Gilroy Kicking Cancer” initiative raised nearly $20,000 for Jacob’s Heart, a local organization supporting families battling pediatric cancer in Santa Clara, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties. Children from the organization collected donations each night during special arena tributes.
“This year, roughly, we seem to have raised close to $20,000, which is huge—that’s the most we’ve ever raised,” Roberts said. “That will go directly to that charity.”
The nonprofit rodeo relies entirely on volunteers, with all proceeds benefiting local youth and nonprofit organizations. Last year, the rodeo distributed about $47,000 to community groups, with Roberts expecting this year’s record attendance to generate even larger contributions.
First-time attendees praised the event’s welcoming atmosphere. “I am loving seeing the diversity, and everyone is so inclusive here,” said Krystle Glover of San Jose. “It’s been a blast.”
Deanna Glover noted the event’s broad appeal: “It’s well-rounded, you’ve got people of all different backgrounds, which makes it even more interesting.”
The rodeo represents a vital link to South County’s agricultural roots as Silicon Valley development continues expanding southward from San Jose, bringing a taste of Western heritage for all to enjoy.
https://www.si.com/fannation/rodeo/news/mare-dies-in-freak-accident-at-the-gilroy-rodeo-in-california
A saddle bronc mare suffered a fall and broken neck at the Friday night rodeo. This should have been covered in this story. A follow-up seems in order.
Be aware that nearly every animal welfare organization on Earth condemns rodeo due to its inherent cruelty. Rodeo is mostly hype, having little to do with life on a working ranch. Rodeo is not a “sport”–that term denotes willing, evenly-matched participants. Rodeo does not qualify. Rather, it’s a macho exercise in DOMINATION. It needs to end. The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) outlawed all of rodeo back in 1934. Can the rest of the world be far behind? BOYCOTT ALL RODEOS, THEIR CORPORATE SPONSORS AND ADVERTISERS. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
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Eric Mills, coordinator
ACTION FOR ANIMALS
Oakland
Tormenting animals for “fun” in the rodeo is condemned by anyone with a conscience.
How many lovely faithful horses do we have to injure or kill before the madness stops? There are certainly more humane ways to show how macho you are, rodeo people!
“It follows that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of
this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other
human beings. We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which
leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our
relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty toward any creature
is contrary to human dignity.” (Pope Francis, 2015 Encyclical on
Climate Change & Inequality)
“Cowboys, sensing–like gorillas–that their time has passed, cling ever more desperately to anachronistic styles, not willing to admit that the myth has degenerated, the traditions eroded to a point where attempting to sustain them falls somewhere between silliness and the outright
ridiculous.” (–Larry McMurtry, rancher and author of “Lonesome Dove,” in the book, “RODEO,” Aperture Books, NYC, 1994)
“No one on a working ranch would ever have any reason (or desire) to ride a bull, Brahma or otherwise. No one would ever be required to race a horse around three triangularly placed barrels, an activity that quickly ruins the horse for more productive activity. Bull riding and barrel racing are rodeo kabuki–their relation to anything that might happen on a ranch is confined to costume.” (–Ibid., #15)
“Women should not rodeo any more than men can have babies. Women were put on earth to reproduce, and are close to animals. Women’s liberation is on an equal to gay liberation–they are both ridiculous.” (–a Wyoming steer wrestler, in the book, “RODEO: An Anthropologist Looks at the Wild and the Tame,” by Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, Univ. Tenn. Press, 1982)
Dr. Robert Bay from Colorado autopsied roping calves and found hemorrhages, torn muscles, torn ligaments, damage to the trachea, damage to the throat and damage to the thyroid. These calves never get a chance to heal before they are used again. Meat inspectors including Drs. Haber and Fetzner who processed rodeo animals found broken bones, ruptured internal organs, massive amounts of blood in the abdomen from ruptured blood vessels and damage to the ligamentum nuchae that holds the neck to the rest of the spinal column.
Dr. C. G. Haber, a veterinarian with thirty years of experience as a USDA meat inspector, stated “The rodeo folks send their animals to the packing houses where I have seen cattle so extensively bruised that the only areas in which the skin was attached was the head, neck, legs, and belly. I have seen animals with six to eight ribs broken from the spine and at times puncturing the lungs. I have seen as much as two and three gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin.” Time to end rodeo forever.