Updated July 26 We received good coverage of the July 21 Yucca Valley Town Council meeting in the local media, including these stories by The Desert Trumpet and Z107.7 FM Joshua Tree. Stay tuned for next steps. If you want to get involved, send an email to allie.irwin@gmail.com. To see earlier campaign content, scroll down.

by Robert Haydon, online news editor, Z107.7 FM

Yucca Valley residents active on social media have probably seen the myriad of dueling posts about bringing a rodeo back to the town. At the June 16 Yucca Valley Town Council meeting, a small group of rodeo supporters used the meeting’s public comment period to discuss their wishes for the return of a rodeo, spurring online responses from residents who oppose rodeos to encourage more people to show up to the next meeting and voice their opinions, too.

Broadly, the argument for a rodeo says that the sport has a long tradition in the region, and that people that oppose it don’t understand the culture and history of ranching cattle work. Residents who oppose it say that using animals for entertainment or sport is cruel, and they don’t want town taxes to support a rodeo.

Of course, there are a wide range of opinions on the spectrum between those two stances, and anyone who witnessed the amount of heated discussion online may have been expecting the wild west at last Tuesday’s meeting of the Yucca Valley Town Council. There were about 60 people in attendance, and Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Schooler prefaced the discussion with a reminder that the rodeo isn’t on the agenda and as of right now, it doesn’t require any permission or action from the Town Council to move forward.

“We are happy to hear your comments, both pro and con, but we are unable by state law to take action or to comment on those items,” he said as the public comment period began.

The last time a rodeo was held in Yucca Valley was at the 2019 Grubstake Days celebration and took place next to Hawks Landing Golf Course. In 2018 it was held in Landers. The pandemic and other factors put a pause on the rodeo, and now Gina Pasquini wants to bring it back in 2027. She was the first to speak in front of the council and calls the rodeo her “brainchild and baby.” Pasquini says that she grew up in Yucca Valley and wants to see Grubstake Days return to how she remembers it growing up.

Gina Pasquini is heading up the efforts to bring a rodeo back to Yucca Valley.

“We can’t forget everything that we’ve done in our past. And I really do want to team with you guys. You represent the city. We’re the city. I want to work with you. So I’m just asking you to please possibly back me if you could put me on the agenda. We can work together. I would just love to see it come back in grandeur.” she told councilmembers.

Resident Sandra Hartness was next, saying that she’s lived here for 37 years and the rodeo used to be the center of Grubstake Days.

“It brings horse people together. There’s a lot of horses out here, and you just wouldn’t know anymore because there’s nothing for us to do.”

She also warned the Town Council that they would hear negativity about the rodeo that night, saying “you’ll probably have some real negative comments tonight about rodeo. So I’m for animal welfare, not for animal rights. And you have to understand that animal rights people are extreme, they’re extreme.”

Hartness told the council that animal rights activists have “poured bleach into fish tanks at Petco and shown up at dog shows and turned dogs loose, which in turn get hit by cars.” This spurred Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Schooler got on microphone and asked commenters to refrain from disparaging any other speakers in the room, which didn’t happen from members of either side for the rest of the comment period.

Resident Allie Irwin spoke next, and she also asked the council to consider putting the rodeo on a future agenda.

Allie Irwin addresses the Town Council over concerns over a possible rodeo return

“I’d like you to address town sponsorship, use of town property, and the event permitting process. Fighting over whether to have a rodeo isn’t a dispute where reasonable people can agree to disagree. And I don’t expect the council to settle that for me tonight. There are genuinely different beliefs in this room, but there is one group here with no voice and no vote.”

Irwin told the council that a rodeo ban reduces the town’s exposure to liability, code enforcement, animal control demands, and takes into account what she says is a small but substantial number of community members who believe that animals are exploited in rodeos. “What I’m asking is for the council to put a consideration of a municipal ordinance prohibiting rodeo events in Yucca Valley on an upcoming agenda. I’d like you to address town sponsorship, use of town property and the event permitting process.”

In total, there were 14 people who spoke on the rodeo, 10 in support and four in opposition. Those in favor of bringing back a rodeo pointed to the long tradition of Western heritage in Yucca Valley. Sisters Abby and Lucy Olea spoke to the bonds that they’ve formed with the animals that they care and work with.

Abby spoke first, saying “the purpose of rodeo is to celebrate Western heritage and transform essential ranching duty into competitive sports. More modern events such as bull riding and barrel racing test the speed and agility of the competitors while displaying the relationship between animal and human. Those who truly understand this sport know that it has never been about harm or exclusion.”

Her sister Lucy spoke next and shared her animal bona fides. “Though I have never been a rancher, I do have 13 chickens, two guinea fowl, two turkeys, four dogs, one lizard, and three beautiful horses. I would love to participate in rodeos right here in my own Western town.”

Discourse about the rodeo boosted attendance at the July 21 meeting

16-year-old Kaylin Moon is part of the California Junior Rodeo Association and says rodeo has always been a part of her life.

“Rodeo may be a rugged, tough sport, but it is not animal abuse. PRCA, Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, has a rule book that is 250 pages long with extensive rules and regulations that protect the animals.”

Twentynine Palms resident Brenda Calvillo says that she doesn’t question the love and care that pro-rodeo people have for their animals, “but if we truly love the animals, would you put them in the way of danger? We don’t do that to those that we love. We don’t put them in unnecessary danger, and that’s what rodeos do. They put people, the public, and the animals in unnecessary danger. For what? For our entertainment,” she said.

She suggested a Western Heritage Festival that celebrates the history of the area without involving animals. Town council members didn’t have any specific comments after the public comment period at July 21st’s town council meeting. However, at June’s meeting, many shared fond memories of growing up in Yucca Valley and riding horses and attending the rodeo events.

The next Yucca Valley Town Council meeting is August 18, and the rodeo was not mentioned for consideration in future agenda items.

by The Desert Trumpet, written with assistance from the Yucca Valley Resident Review Committee

On a hot July evening, a rare summer audience turned out to educate the Yucca Valley Town Council about horses and rodeos, egged on by an equally heated Facebook thread.

The crowd did not come for the scheduled discussion items. The Council cleared its entire Consent Agenda in under fifteen minutes and moved through five department reports with little debate, but the rodeo that drew the crowd wasn’t up for a vote at all, and the Council was legally barred from acting on it or even responding. Of the roughly two hours and fifteen minutes the meeting ran, general public comment, always scheduled toward the end of business, took 50 minutes and the rodeo claimed most of it. Ten speakers urged Council to revive the Grubstake Days rodeo, while four were against.

Mayor Merl Abel was absent, excused; Mayor Pro Tem Jim Schooler chaired. The Yucca Room was half full; many of the folding seats taken, a few people standing at the back.

Public Comment: The rodeo arrives at Town Hall

The Grubstake Days rodeo dominated public comment at the June 16 meeting, when residents turned out to ask the Council to help revive the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) rodeo that was once the celebration’s headline attraction. However, an opposing side showed up for public comment at this meeting: two speakers asked the Council to ban rodeos in Yucca Valley outright. Audience sentiment still tilted heavily toward revival with ten speakers urging the Council to bring the rodeo back while four were against.

Because the item was not on the agenda, Mayor Pro Tem Schooler reminded the room that the Council could listen but could not act or comment. Nothing was decided.

How the crowd got here

By the time of the July 21 meeting, the rodeo had already been argued by advocates for both sides for three weeks in the opinion pages of the Hi-Desert Star and across local Facebook groups. The print exchange ran as a back-and-forth: a July 1 letter to the editor by Allie Irwin of Joshua Tree, Rodeos are not a tradition worth restoring, urged the Council to ban rodeos; it was answered by a July 8 guest column by revival organizer Missy Buchanan, Rodeo celebrates values that shaped Yucca Valley; which them prompted a July 15 letter by Melissa Spurr, also of Joshua Tree, Suffering is built into rodeo events.

The debate spilled onto social media the same week. On July 15, Gina Pasquini, who led the call for revival at the June 16 meeting, posted in the Facebook group “What’s Going On in the Morongo Basin,” urging supporters to attend the July 21 Town Council meeting, while also branding those opposed as “a certain group that opposes western sports” who “don’t even reside in the Morongo Basin.”; on July 18, Buchanan posted a campaign update in a second group, “What’s Really Going On In The Morongo Basin,” announcing that “the countdown to Memorial Weekend 2027 has begun.” Between the print and online threads, the exchange drew hundreds of reactions and comments and turned, at times, personal.

In fact, the most visible opponents are Morongo Basin residents: Irwin and Spurr both live in Joshua Tree, and other speakers against the rodeo revival identified as Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms residents. A speaker in favor mentioned being from Landers. Joshua Tree, Landers, Yucca Valley, and Twentynine Palms are all Morongo Basin communities. The “outsider” accusation draws a town-line boundary around an argument that appears to be Basin-wide on both sides.

In the meeting, Sandra Harkness’ characterization of the opposition was as extreme as she apparently believes the opposition to be:

…owning an animal, in their view, is slavery. This is the extreme people we’re dealing with. So when they get up here and talk, I’d like you to take them with a grain of salt because they’re based in emotion and not fact.

Mayor Pro Tem Schooler, in his role as acting Chair, eventually interrupted:

If we could refrain from disparaging any other speakers, everybody’s….

Harkness stopped Schooler, indicating she was speaking “in general.”

The revival case

In front of Council, Pasquini was upbeat, calling the rodeo effort “my brainchild…my baby.” She discussed working on rodeos elsewhere before returning to Yucca Valley where she was raised and asked that the Grubstakes rodeo be placed on a future agenda:

I miss Grubstakes Days. I saw Grubstakes Days in its grandeur. I was in the Grubstakes Days parade with my horse. I think by preserving our past, we strengthen our future. We can’t forget everything that we’ve done in our past, and I really do want to team with you guys. You represent the city. We’re the city. I want to work with you.

She was followed by longtime residents and a series of youth riders. The most detailed defense came from Kaylin Moon, 16, a former “Tiny Miss Grubstake Days Rodeo Queen” in 2017, whose Mom, “was a rodeo queen for Yucca Valley in 1996,” and aunt “was a rodeo princess in Yucca Valley in 1998.” A member of the California High School Rodeo Association, she argued the sport is closely regulated:

The PRCA has a rule book that is 250 pages long with extensive rules and regulations that protect the animals. I know from my own experiences that rodeo competitors and livestock contractors take amazing care of their animals. These animals are not only their livelihood and a huge investment, but are part of their family.

The youngest speaker, Lucy Olea, tied the sport to daily responsibility for the animals in her family’s care:

A rodeo is a competitive equestrian sport that displays the working skills of cowboys and cowgirls. Although I have never been a rancher. I do have 13 chickens, two guinea fowl, two turkeys, four dogs, one lizard, and three beautiful horses. I am responsible for feeding, mucking, and exercising our horses…

I don’t play soccer. I don’t play pickleball. I ride horses.

The ban case

Allie Irwin asked the Council to do something concrete: sponsor a future agenda item to consider a municipal ordinance:

…what I’m asking is for the Council to put a consideration of a municipal ordinance prohibiting rodeo events in Yucca Valley on an upcoming agenda. I’d like you to address town sponsorship, use of town property, and the event permitting process. Fighting over whether to have a rodeo isn’t a dispute where reasonable people can agree to disagree, and I don’t expect the Council to settle that for me tonight. There are genuinely different beliefs in this room, but there is one group here with no voice and no vote.

Irwin added that taking this move aligns Yucca Valley:

with a documented trend among California municipalities, reduces the town’s exposure to liability, code enforcement, animal control demands, and takes into account the desires of a minority but a substantial number of community members who believe that animals are exploited in rodeos.

Brenda Calvillo of Twentynine Palms also called for a ban and noted that the past need not determine the future:

Communities evolve. We can honor our Western heritage without using animals in competitive events. Respecting tradition and showing compassion are not mutually exclusive. They can go hand in hand. Yucca Valley has the opportunity to create events that celebrate our unique community without putting animals at risk. Imagine a Western heritage festival with live country music, line dancing, cowboy poetry, historical reenactments, local artisans, blacksmith demonstrations, delicious food vendors and performances that focus incredible skills without involving animals.

Tell Yucca Valley that you won't support cruelty

SAMPLE LETTER TO TOWN COUNCIL

mabel@yucca-valley.org, jschooler@yucca-valley.org, rdenison@yucca-valley.org, jdrozd@yucca-valley.org, rlombardo@yucca-valley.org, townclerk@yucca-valley.org

Subject: Future agenda item request for rodeo ban

Dear Mayor Abel, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Schooler, Council Member Rick Dennison, Council Member Jeff Drozd, Council Member Robert Lombardo and Town Clerk Brook Dudra,

I'm writing to introduce a topic that I hope the Town Council will consider for a future meeting agenda: whether Yucca Valley should adopt a municipal ordinance prohibiting rodeo events within town limits.

The topic: Several California cities and counties have already adopted such ordinances, including Pasadena, Irvine, Chino Hills, and Laguna Woods, which ban rodeos outright, as well as San Francisco and Napa County. Los Angeles's City Council is currently working on a rodeo ban. This is a live, active area of municipal policy in California, not a fringe position.

Please consider directing staff to research a comparable ordinance for Yucca Valley by reviewing how neighboring jurisdictions have structured their bans, what enforcement looks like, and what legal or fiscal considerations apply here.

The benefit:

• Positions the town proactively, ahead of any future rodeo proposal, rather than responding case-by-case to individual event applications.

• Aligns Yucca Valley with a documented trend among California municipalities.

• Reduces the town's exposure to the liability, code enforcement, and animal control demands that rodeo events can generate.

• Takes into account the desires of a minority but substantial number of community members who believe animals are exploited in rodeos.

Will one of you please raise this topic during the "Future Agenda Items" portion of tomorrow’s meeting?

I will provide public comment, which is essentially this:

The rodeo committee that requested town funding during public comment at your last meeting has since split from the Chamber of Commerce and is forming its own nonprofit. It no longer appears to be seeking town funding or sponsorship.

That shift doesn't resolve the underlying question. I'm asking the council to proactively agendize consideration of a municipal ordinance prohibiting rodeo events in Yucca Valley – addressing town sponsorship, use of town property, and the event permitting process. Several California cities, including Pasadena, Irvine, Chino Hills, and Laguna Woods, have already adopted comparable bans. I'm asking that staff be directed to research this option under Future Agenda Items.

There is one group in this conversation that actually has no voice and no vote.

Respectfully,

(your name here)

Updated July 20: Since we began organizing against the rodeo, the rodeo committee has split from the chamber of commerce and is forming its own nonprofit. They no longer appear to be seeking town funding. That's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't resolve the underlying question. We're now asking the town council to create an ordinance that bans rodeos in Yucca Valley for good. The first step is getting the topic on an upcoming agenda. The next council meeting is July 21. In advance, you may wish to email the council and request that the rodeo ban be put on an upcoming agenda. Your public comments requesting this and sharing your opinions against the rodeo are still needed.

The addresses are here: mabel@yucca-valley.org, jschooler@yucca-valley.org, rdenison@yucca-valley.org, jdrozd@yucca-valley.org, rlombardo@yucca-valley.org, townclerk@yucca-valley.org

The agenda is here: www.yucca-valley.org/i-want-to/find/meeting-and-agendas

The Zoom link to attend and comment virtually is here: https://zoom.us/j/98109341005?pwd=82T8M0xraLiiy1RTYNN49SJt2Ur7e1.1

Below are my latest thoughts, a new sample email, a couple letters to the editor published in the Hi-Desert Star and a new Change.org petition:

Trying to override social consensus is a bitch.

What happens on an issue when “agree to disagree” isn’t possible?

In the case of the rodeo in Yucca Valley, I’m saying that an animal is being harmed, and the animal has no vote in the negotiation. I’m being asked to accept that the harm doesn't count, or that it counts less than someone's right to do it. Those aren't equally weighted positions being traded off; one side has a claim to non-negotiability that the other doesn't.

I've been told to simply not attend the rodeo if I don't like it. To go back to LA, which I never came from. To go fuck myself. Yeah, that's not gonna happen.

But what is the moral philosophy that underlies activism boundaries and intervention ethics?

The best I can come up with is that the capacity to suffer is universal; therefore, moral duties transcend local traditions. I don’t grant moral immunity to power, history or the majority. Animals have an inherent right not to be treated as property or resources. Because rodeos commodify animals for entertainment, the entire institution is structurally unjust. Intervention is a duty to disrupt an ongoing rights violation.

Civil disobedience, or at least civil participation, is obligatory.

The group working to bring rodeos back to the Morongo Basin has broken with the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce, its former sponsor. Last month they requested support from the city council, and they are now forming a nonprofit organization to host annual rodeos.

In defense of the animals, I am asking the town council to proactively prohibit rodeos within their jurisdiction, so that a special use permit for a rodeo within town limits would not be granted. I’ve set out the arguments for this in previous posts.

The city council meeting is Tuesday. The rodeo is not on the agenda, but I will be requesting they add it to an upcoming meeting. The agenda is here: www.yucca-valley.org/i-want-to/find/meeting-and-agendas, and the Zoom link is here:

https://zoom.us/j/98109341005?pwd=82T8M0xraLiiy1RTYNN49SJt2Ur7e1.1

Majority preference has power, but when what’s popular and what’s right aren’t the same thing, showing up is the only honest response. And I sure would love some backup.

Petition: https://c.org/TKv5yHVSvt

more information at rodeofacts.org

Letters to the editor

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP

*Note the date change, as YVTC cancelled its July 7 meeting

Stay connected, be ready for next steps

Send me your email if you'd like updates on further actions!

Give public comment on July 21

The Town Council meets at 5 pm on Tuesday, July 21, in the Yucca Room at the Yucca Valley Community Center, 57090 Twentynine Palms Hwy, Yucca Valley, CA 92284

When you arrive, sign up to speak during public comment, which is held at the end of the meeting for non-agenda items. You will have three minutes to address the council and audience, and your statement becomes public record. You can also bring signs or posters. We can sit together in a strong showing of solidarity. You can also give public comment over Zoom. When the link is published, a few days before the meeting, it will be here: yuccavalleyca.portal.civicclerk.com

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Mayor Abel (District 3), Mayor Pro Tem Jim Schooler (District 1), Council Member Rick Dennison (District 5), Council Member Jeff Drozd (District 2), Council Member Robert Lombardo (District 4) and Town Clerk Brook Dudra,

Please do not help to reinstate the Grubstake Days rodeo.

Many residents of Yucca Valley (and beyond) have evolved to realize that just because something has been a long-held cultural tradition doesn’t mean it is still relevant or even acceptable. Many traditions have been retired for good; ending slavery, granting women the right to vote, accepting gay marriage, for example. The same is true in the realm of animal rights.

Every animal advocacy organization rebukes rodeos on the grounds that animals used in rodeos are sentient beings who feel pain. They are individuals who have the right to live without human exploitation for sport, entertainment or financial gain.

Cows and horses are prey animals. Rodeo events subject them to intense fear and abuse. Who of you sees compassion in forcing a 3 month old calf who is still nursing to run in sheer terror for his life by chasing him on horseback at 30 miles an hour, lassoing his neck, slamming him to the ground, flipping him on his back and tying three of his legs together?

Who of you sees compassion in bouncing around on the spine of a bull, a horse, a sheep even. Kicking them with spurs no matter how dull, cinching them with straps no matter how padded. Prodding them with electric rods no matter how weak. This is a matter of riding on the power of others, and we don’t need it.

Yucca Valley can join several California municipalities that have already said no to inflicting violent trauma, injury and extreme distress on rodeo animals, and teaching children that this archaic tradition should continue.

San Bernardino has no ban or restrictions on rodeos. This is Yucca Valley’s opportunity to lead the way. We pride ourselves on – and rely on tourism dollars from – our unique placement within the natural world and our appreciation of wildlife. We’ve recently made big efforts to support domesticated animals at our shelter. The abuse of rodeo animals does not align with our values.

The Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce says they lack the funds to host the rodeo for the 2027 Grubstake Days celebration, and their rodeo committee on June 16 asked for the town’s support. I urge you to reject any proposals to fund, subsidize or host a rodeo. Forcing Yucca Valley taxpayers to contribute to an activity rooted in animal exploitation is deeply unjust.

Ultimately, please use your leadership to ban rodeos in Yucca Valley for good.

With compassion,

(your name)

(your town)

Send an email to the council

Send your comments in writing. Address to all five council members and the town clerk. There is a sample letter below that you can copy or personalize, and the email addresses are here: mabel@yucca-valley.org, jschooler@yucca-valley.org, rdenison@yucca-valley.org, jdrozd@yucca-valley.org, rlombardo@yucca-valley.org, townclerk@yucca-valley.org

Tell Yucca Valley that you won't support cruelty

Rodeo fans want to bring the event back for Grubstake Days 2027, and they've asked the Town Council to fund a rodeo with taxpayer money. We're asking the council to reject that proposal and go further: Ban rodeos in Yucca Valley for good.

NOTE: This section was published June 28