Cottage Grove Rodeo responds to criticism of Animal Scramble

I find it interesting how Miss Overholser from the Humane Society says the CGRC will not return her calls yet herself and 2 other people attended an open meeting with the members of the riding club to discuss how to make the animal scramble better for the animals and the children. Then Miss Overholser even went on record in this article stating how the Riding Club had made positive changes in the animal scramble http://www.thecreswellchronicle.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9890 I do agree I do not like the way they were pushed out of the trailer and the one that was tossed from under it I do not agree with, but there is more to the story than is being shown. I am just curious if you have considered where all these rabbits came from, it is not like they came from loving homes. They were all from a commercial meat breeder and would have been guaranteed a death, shoved into cages, and put onto a truck headed for slaughter.

I find it interesting how Miss Overholser from the Humane Society says the CGRC will not return her calls yet herself and 2 other people attended an open meeting with the members of the riding club to discuss how to make the animal scramble better for the animals and the children. Then Miss Overholser even went on record in this article stating how the Riding Club had made positive changes in the animal scramble http://www.thecreswellchronicle.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9890 I do agree I do not like the way they were pushed out of the trailer and the one that was tossed from under it I do not agree with, but there is more to the story than is being shown. I am just curious if you have considered where all these rabbits came from, it is not like they came from loving homes. They were all from a commercial meat breeder and would have been guaranteed a death, shoved into cages, and put onto a truck headed for slaughter.

I am really baffled by some comnents here, leave you Oregoners to your affairs? We have seen how you Oregoners have handled this and it does not speak well of you. How can you possibly teach children about caring for pets if you are setting a horrible example yourself?? There are other, more humane ways to do this and your employees would have a much easier time controlling these rabbits so they wouldn't have to kick and fling them around. Set a good example for your children by showing them the proper wsy to treat rabbits: with love and good care. Not unleashing a stampede on them and scaring them shitless!

You going to pay to have the rabbits fixed? Finally how does Cottage Grove JUSTIFY treatment towards the rabbits? If they was in any way educated on the treatment of rabbits or animal safety then they would know that that treatment was cruel and inhumane! I use everyone to go http://www.change.org/petitions/npra-ban-animal-scrambles-at-your-sanctioned-events and sign the petition!

I checked the page indicated in Bonniezmom's comment. There were ten people that had signed the petition that showed where they lived (1) from Oregon, and the other (9) were from other places as far away as the UK. It said that 78 others had signed, but did not list them. To the 9 out of staters I would ask that you let Oregonians, some of us 5th Generation, settle our own affairs.

A petition, come on, Oregon has always been a big rodeo state. In my 70 years here I have never heard of such a thing. Talk about a mountain out of a mole hill. Wow.

Please sign this petition to ban Animal Scrambles at all 34 Northwest Professional Rodeo Association's events: http://www.change.org/petitions/npra-ban-animal-scrambles-at-your-sanctioned-events

YA YA thats it serious community pressure, lets have the kiddies come to your house and watch the bats fly out.

What would be more "fun" and certainly more humane is to have the kiddies dig through a pile of straw for quarters. What an asinine statement: the Animal Scramble teaches kids "responsibility, caring for a pet". Really? Terrorizing, throwing and kicking animals is the way to teach kids to be responsible pet owners? These people have been confronted about this for years and have refused to listen to anyone. Time for some serious community pressure on this group.

Having watched the whole video (not just the little excerpt shown on the local TV news), I saw people FLINGING terrified rabbits up to 12 feet across the arena, people repeatedly KICKING rabbits that appeared to be frozen in terror, kids grabbing and fighting over rabbits as if they were footballs, kids nearly stepping on or falling onto rabbits. There is NO WAY anyone with a functioning brain can say this is anything but cruel and dangerous to the animals involved.