Euthanising animals after injuries in rodeos is a "rare" and "regrettable" occurrence, the Rodeo Cowboys Association president Lyal Cocks says.
Protocol was followed when a bull was put down after it broke its leg at the Pukemanu Bullride in Martinborough on Friday evening, he said.
"It's very difficult for an animal such [as] a bull to provide treatment to repair a broken leg.
"They put up a screen not just for the spectators, for the owners, for the competitors - because they all love animals and work with animals all the time. It is a regrettable incident."
But animal rights group, SAFE, said the death of the bull made banning rodeos especially urgent.
Listen to Kim Hill's interview with former Whanganui mayor, regional Otago regional councillor and New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association spokesperson Michael Laws
A rodeo protest in Northland by the group Direct Animal Action last month. Photo: Supplied
"It isn't right to put animals through stress and fear, risk of injury and death over and over again just to keep something going that is basically archaic," campaign director Mandy Carter said.
"It is an entertainment of so-called 'sport' and it's basically enjoyed by a minority of people... there is really no justification for it when you consider it is an entertainment activity."
But Mr Cocks said it was a sport that had been in the country for 60 years and this was no reason to end it.
"It was very regrettable," he said.
"It was an accident, like in all sports there are accidents occasionally."
Check out a documentary from RNZ's Insight programme about rodeo in New Zealand