SAN DIEGO (KGTV — Emotions filled the room as the City of San Diego’s Land Use and Housing Committee discussed agenda item 3: animal welfare regulations in rodeos.

“There is no such thing as a humane rodeo,” said Jan Fogel, a local animal rights activist. “It can’t be done without cruelty, harm and so on, and you can’t monitor it very well either.”

Although an outright ban on rodeos was not likely in the near future, new proposals aimed at abolishing popular activities such as calf roping, team roping and steer wrestling were presented with objections from those who have practiced them for years.

“it would definitely weaken the sport,” said Filemon Jara, a local who grew up around these types of events and practices all his life.

Jara says it would change the dynamics of the sport.

“It’s almost like a baseball player being asked to hit a ball without a bat.”

During the meeting, the San Diego Humane Society also suggested having a licensed and qualified veteran on hand at these events as well as a closer look at these animals traveling. Several signs filled the front rows of the crowd, an attempt to make their position known. Some who say it’s to save what they call *tradition, while others who say they’re out to save animals’ lives.

“They think it’s tradition and they think there’s revenue to be made from it,” says Fogel. “It’s just abuse and you know there’s no way to have a rodeo without it.”

But Jara disagrees.

“To say that it’s just that we’re brutal savages and that we’re out to hurt animals is completely untrue,” he explains. “The biggest misconception is that we are animal abusers, that we intentionally go and hurt the animals and that’s not what we’re trying to do at all.”

No vote was scheduled for Thursday … but it now opens the discussion further to finding common ground at some point.

“They’re not just trophy pets, they’re part of our sport, so we definitely want to take care of them. We don’t want people to know that’s part of our intent from the beginning.”