A specialty license plate released for sale Friday depicting a crisp black-and-white photograph of a cowboy riding the famous saddle bronc Steamboat is Wyoming's answer to a strongly-worded letter People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent legislative leadership two summers ago.
Wyoming’s standard license plates, both prior and current, show the famous silhouette of a cowboy riding Steamboat, the state’s most iconic rodeo horse.
PETA wrote a letter to state leaders June 27, 2024, urging the Legislature to make law letting Wyoming vehicle registrants opt out of using the bucking horse and rider logo, which is required to appear on all license plates.
“If you continue to promote rodeos,” read the letter, “we ask that your license plates at least more accurately reflect the cruelty that animals exploited for entertainment endure with the silhouette of a bloody spur.”
The letter also urged as alternatives using the silhouette of a majestic horse, or a triceratops, the state dinosaur.
Even More Rodeo
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, launched a successful legislative effort in the 2025 session that he called a “tongue-in-cheek” retort: a law having the Wyoming Department of Transportation design and offer an even more rodeo-specific plate as a specialty item.
WYDOT unveiled the plate Wednesday, alongside another specialty plate to promote search and rescue programs.
Money from the search and rescue plate support those programs, while funds from the rodeo plate support University of Wyoming and community college rodeo programs in Wyoming.
UW provided the photograph of steamboat, WYDOT said in its Wednesday statement.
Boner sent PETA a response letter Wednesday announcing the new plate’s availability.
“Our newest license plate elevates the very traditions you hoped we would set aside,” he wrote. “Rather than minimizing the presence of horses and riders on our roads, we opted to celebrate them even more prominently.”
Boner pointed to the plates’ fundraising component for rodeos.
“So, in a small way, your request will generate even more funding for the next generation of Wyoming rodeo athletes,” he wrote. “We appreciate the help.”
The letter says the Bucking Horse and Rider logo is more than artwork, it’s heritage and has represented Wyoming for more than a century.
“That identity is not something we cast aside lightly,” he wrote, thanking PETA again for its letter. “Few letters have ever united the Wyoming Legislature so quickly and decisively.”
Roll Call
The bill garnered little resistance in the 2025 session.
Nine state House of Representatives out of the 59 who were available for the vote that day opposed it on its third reading in that chamber.
And those nine representatives comprised an odd combination of eight Republicans from two different factions and one Democrat.
The state Senate opposition was even smaller and nearly as eclectic: three Republicans from two different factions voting nay.
One of those was state Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, who told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that he voted against the plate legislation at the time because the state has so many specialty license plates already, and this design “was sold as thumping PETA.”
He reiterated that stance Friday, saying he feels Boner’s Wednesday letter, which 22 other legislators signed, is unnecessarily adversarial.
“I just think it doesn’t do any good to poke at people just because you can,” Case said. “Rodeo is not in danger in Wyoming … (Wyomingites are generally) not for PETA, but we don’t need to rub their noses in it, you know?”
Case said he likes rodeo and loves Wyoming as well, but sometimes it’s better to “move on” than create conflict.
“Let’s just be proud of what we have,” he said. “We shouldn’t do things to spite what people from elsewhere think our image is.”
Tongue-In-Cheek
Boner responded in his own Friday interview, saying his letter was not meant to be an angry response, but “more tongue-in-cheek than anything — and I think it’s important we communicate with people who disagree with us.”
It’s also a way to tout one of the state’s largest tourist attractions, he said, noting that the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and ProRodeo Hall of Fame are considering a move to Cheyenne, home of Cheyenne Frontier Days, after 46 years in Colorado Springs.
“I think it’s time to double down on rodeo, absolutely,” said Boner.
PETA Says …
PETA in a Friday email responded.
“You’d think, in 2026, Wyoming wouldn’t wish to be thought of as a yahoo state and have seized the opportunity to buck the rodeo depicted on its license plate,” the group wrote.
“Animals abused in rodeos are tormented, terrified, provoked, and often suffer broken bones, punctured lungs, and snapped necks,” PETA added. “Wyoming lawmakers failed to celebrate things that make the state extraordinary in the best possible ways, such as beautiful national parks and free-roaming horses, and PETA urges them to at least allow residents the ability to opt out of promoting old-style cruelty on their cars.”
Other Signers
The other lawmakers who signed the letter, all Republicans, are:
• Rep. Rob Geringer (Cheyenne)
• House Speaker Chip Neiman (Hulett)
• Sen. Laura Pearson (Kemmerer)
• Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (Cody)
• Rep. Clarence Styvar (Cheyenne)
• Rep. Nina Webber (Cody)
• Rep. Bob Davis (Baggs)
• Rep. Mike Schmid (La Barge)
• Rep. Dalton Banks (Cowley)
• Rep. JT Larson (Rock Springs)
• Rep. John Winter (Thermopolis)
• Sen. Ed Cooper (Ten Sleep)
• Rep. Martha Lawley (Worland)
• Sen. Stacy Jones (Rock Springs)
• Rep. Lloyd Larsen (Lander)
• Sen. Taft Love (Cheyenne)
• Rep. Daniel Singh (Cheyenne)
• Rep. Tomi Strock (Douglas)
• Sen. Wendy Schuler (Evanston)
• Rep. Jacob Wasserburger (Cheyenne)
• Rep. Gary Brown (Cheyenne)
• Rep. JR Riggins (Casper)
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
