Rodeo events including calf roping, steer wrestling, and bucking events raise welfare concerns through stress, injury, and the use of devices like flank straps and electric prods.
Rodeo animal welfare concerns center on events that use equipment to induce aversive responses, or that subject young, stressed animals to rough handling for entertainment. Flank straps cause discomfort that motivates bucking behavior in bulls and horses; this is an induced rather than natural behavior. Calf roping events involve roping and flanking young calves that experience sudden restraint and impact. Electric prods are used to move animals into chutes. Each event has specific welfare implications that vary by management quality and equipment use. The entertainment framing of these activities does not resolve the underlying welfare questions.