Hunterville's rodeo will kick off next Friday amid calls for the public to boycott the event.
Animal advocacy organisation SAFE says animals are being abused at rodeo and it has video footage to back up its claims.
The footage, shot in Whangarei last month, shows a bull crawling on his knees in a attempt to get away and a young calf being roughly flipped in mid-air as he is hooked around his hooves by a lasso during a calf-roping event.
SAFE campaigns officer Marianne Macdonald said animals were "being abused for entertainment", but the Hunterville event organiser denies that.
Shane Bird, director of the Rodeo NZ North Island Club and the man behind the Hunterville show, said the animals were not upset but rather had been bred and chosen for their tendency to buck.
"What looks like an animal in distress is actually natural behaviour - these animals will buck out in the open, and it is not because they're distressed or in pain."