The Northern Rivers wouldn’t be the same without rodeos. This isn’t Bondi or St Kilda, we’re a rural district where the primary industries are agricultural. Rodeos are part of the fabric of this area. The annual Murwillumbah rodeo attracts people from all over Queensland and NSW. It’s a big drawcard for our region. If you’ve ever been, bull riding is quite a skill, based on a long cattle industry history in regional NSW. For many people, it’s not just entertainment, but their livelihood.
If rodeos were banned, then what’s next? Horse riding? Owning domestic cats and dogs? Let’s face it, domestic cats and dogs are infinitely worse for the environment than bull riding. Yet, the amount of kangaroos slaughtered each year for pet food doesn’t seem to feature as highly in the urban sensitivities of those who wish to ban rodeos?
And before anyone blames ‘greenies’, from memory this whole storm in a teacup started on social media when a Courier Mail paparazzi photographer captured Chris Hemsworth at the Byron rodeo. That’s right, more hysteria from the Rupert Murdoch News Limited muck rackers!
Leave our rodeos alone! This is the Northern Rivers. Agricultural shows and rodeos should be here to stay.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
