Western Entertainment
In Spanish America, the rodeo was the process that was used by vaqueros to gather cattle for various purposes, such as moving them to new pastures, separating the cattle owned by different ranchers, or gathering in preparation for slaughter (matanza).
Other animal welfare groups, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), also object to rodeos . The ASPCA calls them “a cruel form of entertainment that involves the painful, stressful and potentially harmful treatment of livestock”.
The horses, bulls , steer, and calves suffer broken ribs, backs, and legs, torn tails, punctured lungs, internal organ damage, ripped tendons, torn ligaments, snapped necks, and agonizing deaths. The injuries are not confined to the rodeos themselves.
The U.S. professional rodeo circuit averages one or two deaths annually. Several more riders suffer serious spinal or brain injuries each year, according to the World Health Organization’s Helmet Initiative.
While bucking horses and bulls are treated with more consideration due to their greater monetary value and popularity, they are still abused, often injured and sometimes killed . Furthermore, they are only valuable to the rodeo industry as long as they are bucking, so they are forced to buck at any cost.
Feel free to wear skirts, shorts, or jeans, so long as they’re all denim. You can even flaunt your favorite pair of skinny jeans at the rodeo if you ‘ d like. They’re perfect for tucking into some knee-high cowboy boots.
If the media and animal rights extremists are to be believed, bulls buck for two reasons: they’re shocked out of the chute with help from an electric cattle prod, or they’re bucking madly because of a rope tied around the testicles. Cattle share this instinct with horses.
According to Dr. Peggy Larson of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA), “rodeo events are inherently cruel .” Dr. Larson asserts that in bull-riding rodeos, “cattle prods are often used repeatedly to shock the bulls as they stand trapped in the bucking chute.
Animals are also injured in the bucking events. Horses and bulls break their legs and injuries to the skin are com- mon from bucking straps. They receive bite wounds from other horses ; kick wounds from over-crowded corrals; and tears and abrasions as a result of their contact with trailers and chutes.
The United Kingdom and the Netherlands have banned rodeos outright. In the United States, rodeo is the official state sport in Wyoming and Texas. Other countries where rodeo is still a big sport are Canada, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain.
Because bulls are herd animals and naturally social, the isolation they face prior to an even can also contribute to their aggression. They are alone in the ring surrounded by humans, who end up essentially harassing the bull. In its natural setting in the presence of other cattle, bulls show less aggression.
The flank, or “bucking,” strap or rope is tightly cinched around the animals’ abdomens, which causes them to “ buck vigorously to try to rid themselves of the torment.”3 “Bucking horses often develop back problems from the repeated poundings they take from the cowboys,” Dr. Horses don’t normally jump up and down.”
Mason Lowe
Here are the 5 most deadly sports in the world. Base Jumping . Deaths per 100,000 population: 43.17. Odds of dying: 1 in 2,317. Swimming . Deaths per 100,000 population: 1.77. Cycling . Deaths per 100,000 population: 1.08. Running . Deaths per 100,000 population: 1.03. Skydiving . Deaths per 100,000 population: 0.99.
Rodeo not only injures and kills many animals, but it exposes children to sanctioned animal abuse. As a former prosecutor, I saw many criminals that had a history of animal abuse. Children who attend rodeos witness riders and ropers dominate and injure animals. They see the spurs, the cattle prods and the ropes.