“Let’s Renew Local Action to Ban Cruel Rodeos” (August 30): I support a ban to protect animals from being tied, wrestled, tail-twisted, flank-strapped and other devices that cause immense pain and injury.

Tribal leaders and charro groups say a ban “threatens long-standing traditions, as rodeos are a cultural practice with roots that have been closely tied to Black, Indigenous and Mexican-American communities for centuries.”

Similarly, 19th-century advocates of slavery opposed abolitionists by invoking the Old Testament cultural practice of owning slaves, which went back centuries and was rooted in tradition. In the 15th century, Spanish conquerors subjugated indigenous peoples because slavery was an accepted practice and tradition to enslave “savages.”

If anyone can avoid harming animals for entertainment, I expect my own Latino community and others who have faced oppression to be the first to reject the tradition/culture argument when it comes to exploiting conscious, sentient beings.

—Maria del Carmen Torres, Chula Vista