Sunday, March 29, 2009
Animals suffer in the making of a rodeo
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Nan Fariss
Fariss, of Roanoke, is a piano teacher and a retired registered nurse.
It was with great sadness for many of us to see that a rodeo event was in Roanoke last weekend. Rodeos are promoted as rough and tough exercises of human skill and courage in conquering the fierce, untamed beasts of the Wild West, when in reality they are nothing more than manipulative displays of human domination over animals, thinly disguised as entertainment.
What began in the late 1800s as a skill contest among cowboys has become a show of cruelty motivated by greed and profit. The animals used in rodeos do not live on ranches, cared for by the contestants, but have been rented from stock contractors. They spend their lives in cramped quarters and transportation vehicles, not always receiving proper medical care. They are, in general, not aggressive by nature, but are physically provoked into displaying "wild" behavior to make the cowboys look brave.
Electric prods, sharp sticks, caustic ointments and other torturous devices are used to irritate and enrage animals used in rodeos. The flank or bucking strap used to make horses and bulls buck is tightly cinched around their abdomens, pinching the groin and genitals. The pain causes the animals to buck, which is what the rodeo promoters want the animal to do in order to put on a good show for the crowd.
Injuries are all too common among all animals. Because speed is a factor, the risk of accidents is high. Calves roped while running up to 27 miles per hour routinely have their necks snapped back by the lasso, resulting in neck and back injuries, bruises, broken bones and internal hemorrhages. Many have become paralyzed from severe spinal cord injury, and their tracheas totally or partially severed. Steer wrestling, another favorite entertainment in rodeos, often results in serious injuries to the steers when they are jumped on and their necks are twisted until they are forced to the ground.
Although rodeo cowboys voluntarily risk injury by participating in events, the animals do not have such choice.
Let's have Roanoke cruelty-free and not sponsor an event that is purely driven by greed without compassion for the animals. We certainly don't want our children to learn that it is OK to mistreat animals. Some cities, like Pittsburgh, have laws prohibiting cruelty to rodeo animals, like using electric prods and flank straps, that resulted in banning rodeos altogether. The same goes for calf roping, the elimination of which might also result in the overall elimination of rodeo shows.
When talking to some people in the Roanoke area, I was amazed how many people do not know the above facts that were gathered after many years of investigation of this so-called sport by the Humane Society of the United States. Rodeo events are not accurate, harmless portrayals of ranching skills, rather rodeos display and encourage brutal treatment of animals for entertainment and profit.
By increasing the public's awareness of the suffering endured by the animals in rodeos, maybe an end to this cruelty can be achieved.
