Northern Illinois counties struggle to regulate Mexican-style rodeos, steer-tailing events in their area

Several northern Illinois counties have struggled in the past two years to regulate area rodeos after an animal rights group captured multiple videos of animal abuse at the events.

The Chicago-based group, SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness, provided officials in Will, Boone and DeKalb counties with footage from area rodeos where animals were being hit in the face, tripped, prodded and continued to run after injuries such as severed tails and broken legs.

In all cases, one event – steer tailing – has drawn the most controversy due to the injuries it typically results in for animals.

Steer tailing, or coleadero, is where a horseback rider chases a running steer, grabs onto its tail and wraps the tail around the rider’s leg to slam the animal to the ground. It’s banned in Nebraska and parts of California and Colorado.

The most recent county under fire is Ogle County. SHARK footage shows lamed steers and horses, steer-tailing events resulting in severed tails and broken legs or horns, and participants punching and prodding animals at a Mexican-style rodeo near Rochelle. Other counties took action against the rodeos, but Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock filed charges against a SHARK advocate.

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Ogle County sheriff Brian VanVickle talks about the animal abuse allegations Monday, July 14, 2025, regarding a Rochelle area private rodeo. (Alex T. Paschal)

The rodeo, Rancho La Esperanza at 16989 Ritchie Road south of Rochelle, operates under a special-use permit issued in 2012.

SHARK first documented the rodeo events in April 2022 and began advocating for its closure, giving footage to law enforcement, speaking at Ogle County Board meetings and contacting county officials, SHARK President Steve Hindi told Shaw Local.

Hindi said one steer “was run 24 times in a single day” and is shown on video with a broken horn.

“I think the only reason they stopped running [the steer] was he had blood running down the side of his face,” Hindi said.

SHARK Campaign Director Jodie Wiederkehr told Shaw Local that none of the animals are given veterinary treatment for their injuries, and at one event, participants ran a de-gloved steer “to try to violently grab what’s left of his bloody body part.”

On April 19, Wiederkehr said, SHARK documented a horse and two steers that had their legs broken and gave the footage to the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office, but “nobody followed up.”

“I emailed and called multiple times to make sure they received it, ask if they were investigating. Nobody ever responded,” Wiederkehr said.

Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle told Shaw Local that he received the footage.

“[The sheriff’s office, state’s attorney and animal control in Ogle County] don’t condone animal abuse. That’s never been anything we’ve considered,” VanVickle said.

County officials have many complicated reasons why they’ve continued to allow this, but, essentially, it boils down to two issues: Illinois’ broad animal protection laws and a fear of violating antidiscrimination laws.

Ogle County Board Chairman Bruce Larson sent out a news release June 26 detailing the reasons for the county’s lack of action as a response to the “claims” from “outside entities” that the county is “permitting animal cruelty.”

Kelleigh Miller of Oregon said that after she read Larson’s “pathetic” news release, she “just felt empowered” to respond and wrote a letter July 10, signed by 15 other county residents, to correct “misinformation” from the county.

What charges did Ogle County file?

Wiederkehr has been urging county officials to “revoke the permit” and prosecute rodeo participants since at least late 2024. Over time, her emails and calls to county officials became more frequent and targeted individuals such as Rock, who said that at one point, he was getting “a couple thousand” emails a day.

“What [SHARK does] is they go after the local prosecutors,” Rock said.

“I’m very upset with the tactics that these people against the rodeo have taken,” Ogle County Board member Lyle Hopkins told Shaw Local.

He said the high number of messages he has received and their attempts “to tie up the 911 line.”

Prosecutors allege that on May 25, Wiederkehr “repeatedly” called 911 and told an Ogle County dispatcher that she “saw someone get shot” at the Ritchie Road property when “she knew what she was telling them was not true,” Rock said.

The charges against Wiederkehr – two counts of disorderly conduct, a Class 4 felony, and one count of harassment by telephone, a misdemeanor – were filed June 17.

Wiederkehr first appeared in court via video conference with her attorney, Bradley Thompson, on July 3 in front of Judge Anthony Peska. A preliminary hearing was set for 10 a.m. Aug. 20, for which Peska ordered all parties to appear in person.

“For them to take the time and effort to charge me with harassment is comical,” Wiederkehr said. “They’re ignoring the real crimes of animals being illegally tortured.”

What are Illinois’ animal protection laws?

According to the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act, 510 ILCS 70/3 and 3.01, it’s illegal to “beat, cruelly treat, torment, starve, overwork or otherwise abuse any animal,” and “veterinary care” must be provided “when needed to prevent suffering.”

Under the current law, “the difficulty is [that] there’s not a specific statute when it comes to steer tailing,” Rock said. As a result, prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the event does qualify as animal cruelty.

On top of that, “we have to prove intent,” and, right now, VanVickle said, there is none.

A bill that would ban steer tailing in Illinois was introduced Jan. 13 by state Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, but won’t be voted on until the next legislative session, Ventura told Shaw Local.

Rock said that bill shows that lawmakers “don’t believe that it’s, per se, illegal,” but Ventura said she wrote the bill because groups such as SHARK asked her to after local officials continuously failed to prosecute under the current law.

“There’s plenty” under “our current law that could stop these practices if those in those positions just took the avenues to do so,” Ventura said. “It is his job to enforce our state laws. He is choosing to not enforce our state law.”

In the three other counties that have dealt with similar situations – Boone, Will and DeKalb – none have charged and convicted anyone for steer tailing, but two obtained animal cruelty convictions.

In Will County, prosecutors charged two rodeo participants with animal cruelty after seeing footage from SHARK: Christofer Dorado of Batavia was seen beating a horse, and Ezequiel Herrera of Lockport Township was seen using an electric cattle prod to shock a steer in the face and head.

Dorado pleaded guilty in August 2024, got 18 months of probation and was ordered to pay a fine. Herrera was found not guilty at a bench trial in January, court records show.

“For both of those prosecutions, the difficulty was identifying the individual who had done the act” and required a lot of “legwork” by the sheriff’s office, Toni Renken, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, said in an interview with Shaw Local.

In DeKalb County, after seeing SHARK footage, prosecutors charged Kirkland rodeo permit holder Cristofer Perez with animal owner duties violations. Perez was found guilty in April, given 12 months of probation and was ordered to pay a fine, according to court records.

Perez recently was granted a new rodeo permit under the condition that he have a licensed veterinarian on-site for events, DeKalb County Board Chair John Frieders told Shaw Local.

But Renken told Shaw Local that steer tailing, not being specifically illegal, does make these cases difficult to prosecute, and Will County prosecutors have put together a new statute they hope to get passed.

In the meantime, county officials have gotten “creative” in their efforts to protect rodeo animals, including the filing of a type of temporary restraining order to prevent animal abuse at a Joliet rodeo in September 2023, Renken said.

That rodeo eventually was shut down after Will County Sheriff’s Detective R.J. Austin hand-delivered a letter to the owner of the Iowa trucking company that was supplying the animals. State and federal departments of agriculture require animals to have specific health records when crossing state lines, and the letter to the trucking company said it would be “accountable for every animal on that load,” Austin said.

VanVickle said the Illinois Department of Agriculture is supposed to deal with these issues, but “they’ve been unwilling to help us.”

According to the IDOA’s Rodeo Event Information, violations of the Humane Care Act, which applies to companion animals and livestock, are criminal offenses prosecuted by county state’s attorneys. The department cannot pursue criminal charges and does not have criminal enforcement power.

A simple fix? Revoke the permit

Those advocating for the Ogle County rodeo’s closure point to one simple way the County Board could do it - revoke the permit – but officials say no.

The special-use permit allowing rodeo and other amusement activities at the property was approved by the board in June 2012 with four conditions related to curfew and noise. It’s permanent and remains intact, even if the owner were to sell the property, as long as at least one event is held once a year and there are no violations of the conditions, Ogle County Zoning Administrator Mark Miller told Shaw Local.

It “can’t ‘just be revoked’ – there’s due process involved,” Miller said.

Violations of permit conditions would result in a review of evidence by the county committee.

If criminal activity was “proved to be occurring” at the property, “that would probably be cause to” remove the permit, Miller said.

The board reviewed the permit in 2024 and added a condition that events need on-site security, but otherwise “maintained that same permit,” VanVickle said.

This “is a huge weakness in the county permitting process,” Kelleigh Miller said. “Nothing should be permanent.”

She said that there should be a renewal process, oversight in place, and permits should include language that violations of state and county animal protection laws could result in its removal.

Boone County Board members were successful in this approach after SHARK advocated for the closure of several Mexican-style rodeos. In March 2024, the board passed three ordinances and updated its requirements for rodeo permits.

Two ordinances relate to the care of animals, noting that residents must comply with state animal protection laws and provide sufficient food, water, shelter and veterinary care. One ordinance prohibits “equine [horse] poling or tripping, equine tailing, and equine heeling,” according to Boone County code.

The new permit requirements include an “animal safety plan” that’s reviewed by a licensed veterinarian, and that rodeo participants must provide their contact information to the county, among other things.

Adding those regulations wasn’t easy for Boone County, and the board hit a roadblock in 2023, when the Illinois Attorney General’s Office sent a letter warning officials that they may be violating state and federal antidiscrimination laws.

The letter said allegations were made that the board was targeting ”‘Mexican-style’ rodeos while exempting ‘American-style’ rodeos."

Ogle County officials reference that letter as “another complicating factor.”

“We can’t do anything about [the rodeo]. It’s an ethnic tradition,” Hopkins said.

The way the Boone County Board “worded their ordinance is the problem,” Ventura said. “The ordinances specifically said that they would not have Mexican rodeos,” which would be discriminatory, “because you’re singling out a certain culture and holding something against only them,” but it doesn’t mean counties can’t regulate “animal cruelty.”

“This is not a race issue. This is strictly an animal abuse issue,” Kelleigh Miller said.

The Ogle County rodeo “does not follow the traditions of a Mexican-style rodeo," and its events don’t “comply with American nor Mexican American rodeo regulations,” Kelleigh Miller said.

“It’s not who’s committing the abuse. It’s the abuse they’re committing,” Hindi said. “This is closer to a dog fight than a rodeo. These people do not represent anyone in that culture.”