The fight to stop a second rodeo at Petco Park has cleared a small legal hurdle.
On Thursday morning, a judge denied a request from the Padres and others to push back a hearing on a preliminary injunction to stop a rodeo from taking place at Petco Park early next year. Instead, the hearing on that issue and several others related to the rodeo will stay on the calendar for Oct. 25.
Additional hearings with event operator C5 Rodeo are scheduled for Nov. 15.
Attorneys for the Padres and C5 asked the judge to reschedule the items on the Oct. 25 calendar to Nov. 15 so that they could all be addressed at the same time.
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The plaintiffs’ attorney, Bryan Pease, said the effort to reschedule the hearing was a delaying tactic.
After hearing from both sides, Judge Joel Wohlfeil decided to keep the schedule as is.
“The court denies the application,” Wohlfeil said in his ruling. “I’m not persuaded that good cause has been shown.”
Thursday’s hearing was the latest in a series of courtroom battles over the rodeo that began late last year, leading up to last January’s event at Petco Park.
It was the first rodeo held in the city of San Diego since the 1980s, and, according to the San Diego Rodeo Alliance, the event was sold-out.
Last month, the Padres announced a second, bigger rodeo is set for January 2025. The announcement has been met with of opposition.
The Animal Protection and Rescue League and SHARK, which stands for Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, want to stop the rodeo. They are suing the Padres and C5, claiming animal abuse and violations of the city of San Diego’s municipal code connected to allowing cattle downtown.
Pease has filed for a preliminary injunction to stop the rodeo while the lawsuit continues. He said any delay could jeopardize those efforts, because it will be too close to the rodeo’s scheduled date, similar to what happened last year.
“It is a victory for us here today that the court took this seriously enough and said this needs to be heard, and we’re gonna hear it on Oct. 25, despite the Padres’ desire to delay it and kick it out further,” Pease said.
NBC 7 reached out to the Padres for comment and was told Thursday afternoon by Craig Hughes, the team's vice-president of communications, that "We do not comment on pending legal matters.
