why is rodeo inhumane?
Fear, pain and stress: Animal protection groups argue that rodeo exploits animals' reaction to pain, fear and stress. This becomes obvious when one asks questions such as: Why would a calf or bull charge at full speed out of a chute into an arena full of people? (Answer: they are kicked, have their tails twisted or are even given electric shocks.) What makes rodeo horses and bulls buck? (Answer: A device called a flank strap is tied around the animals’ hindquarters, causing irritation and stress until the strap is released.) Were such methods used to motivate dogs at dog agility competitions, there would be a public outcry.
Even without physical coercion, the noise, alien surroundings and stress of being chased can cause extreme fear. The distinguished animal behaviourist, Dr. Temple Grandin (who designs slaughterhouses for the meat industry), has argued that fear is “so bad” for animals that it is worse than pain.
Injuries and deaths: Rodeo animals are injured or killed in rodeos regularly. The death of the calf that prompted changes at the Cloverdale Rodeo in 2006 had been preceded by the death of a steer in 2004 (a cowboy broke its neck during the steer wrestling event). It is difficult to get accurate figures on rodeo deaths and injuries but anti-rodeo activists have compiled a list of incidents from the Calgary Stampede, which gives a representative picture of rodeos risks to animals’ health and well being. It should also be noted that many painful injuries go unnoticed and unrecorded because bruising and internal bleeding are difficult to see.
Condoning of violence and animal abuse: Aside from what rodeo does to animals, there is also the question of what it does to us. That is, what message does rodeo give to the public, especially children? Most civilized societies rank kindness to animals amongst the highest behavioural values of humankind. From St. Francis of Assisi to Gandhi to the Dalai Lama, great moral figures have cited compassion toward animals as an essential human virtue. No one could argue that rodeo demonstrates kindness or compassion to animals. On the contrary, rodeo explicitly condones and glorifies violence and brutality toward animals.
The only message that rodeo can therefore give to society is that it is acceptable to treat animals brutally. For children, this is surely an undesirable moral lesson.
