The Queensland Government is ignoring "blatant proof" of animal cruelty at rodeos, animal rights groups say.
Animals Australia executive Wendy Parsons and Jeanie Walker, who runs anti-rodeo website www.norodeo.org, compiled video recordings of animals "being seriously mistreated" at rodeos, including one at Warwick, Queensland.
The pair say all rodeos should be banned.
They hope the footage will encourage the Government to drop its support of the Mount Isa Rodeo, which will start on Friday.
Ms Parsons said her footage, sent to Premier Anna Bligh, included horses with broken legs or spinal injuries, an injured horse being dragged onto a float to be destroyed and "obviously distressed" horses trying to escape chutes or slamming into fences.
Ms Walker's footage shows:
* cowboys repeatedly kicking a collapsed horse;
* electric cattle prods being used on a horse that was "too terrified" to leave the chute to enter the arena; and
* a horse being punched in the head.
The groups are angry that the Government, a Mount Isa Rodeo sponsor, will spend up to $50,000 for a feasibility study into the event's promotion and expansion.
"All the Premier and her ministers have to do to see that rodeos are cruel, that animals are suffering, is watch the footage, but I don't think they'll bother," Ms Walker said.
"If they ignore it, they can pretend the cruelty isn't happening."
Government officials said the Premier had not seen the footage, which had been forwarded to Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin.
Mr Mulherin's spokesman said the item had been sent to his department's animal welfare officers.
"The animal welfare guys haven't looked at the footage and I don't know if they'll be able to before the Mount Isa Rodeo," the spokesman said.
The Premier said the Government supported the rodeo through the Queensland Events Regional Development Program.
"Event organisers advise that the rodeo operates under an international code of practice accepted by the Australian Professional Rodeo Association [APRA]," Ms Bligh said.
"It has strict rules of safety for riders and animals."
Ms Parsons said all her footage had been shot at APRA-approved rodeos.
"It doesn't matter which rodeo the footage was shot at because the same sort of cruelty is going on at all rodeos."
She said she had sent the footage to APRA in 2004 and 2005 but had not received a reply.
An APRA spokesman could not be contacted for comment.
Ms Walker said: "I went to the APRA-approved Warwick rodeo and it was the most horrific event I've everseen.
"Every animal welfare organisation in the world, including the RSPCA here, wants rodeos banned."
Ms Walker, a mother of three, said she had received death threats because of her anti-rodeo stance.
"Most animal lovers only go to one rodeo to protest and gather evidence because they are so intimidated and harassed," she said.
The APRA website says: "There is no valid support for the argument that rodeo animals are treated cruelly or harmed by rodeo competition."
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