The Oregon Legislature may have banned roping horses to trip them in the last session, but the horse tripping issue hasn’t gone away. The Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo is alleged to have said it will continue the event, despite the law and public outcry, and a recently released recording shows police in Malheur County discussing the fact the rodeo board compelled them to pull over an animal rights activist.

The rodeo is scheduled to take place again May 17-18, 2014. The description of the Big Loop event has not changed on the rodeo’s website.

The video of the police, taken from their own cameras, was obtained by SHARK — Showing Animals Respect and Kindness — which brought attention to the cruel event by videoing the horses galloping and then being roped by the neck and legs before crashing to the ground in 2012 and 2013. SHARK says that the Malheur County Sheriff’s Department  has financial and personal ties to the rodeo.

Eugene attorney Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center is defending one of the SHARK videographers who was charged with a misdemeanor in Malheur County for videoeing the horse tripping.

In the video below, SHARK President Steve Hindi, who filmed the event after the SHARK volunteer was arrested, recounts the incident.

Warning: The cop part is pretty funny, the video of the horse tripping is not.

The full dashboard cam and body cam can be seen here: Malheur bodycam and Malheur County dashcam.

(We are going to forgive Hindi for calling Malheur (Mal-yur) County “Malure” County because he clearly cares about animals.)

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