<font color="purple"> I guess ranching skills will be considered inhumane to animals </font color>
My wife is very much the "animal advocate", even to being borderline PETA in some respects, but she has an interesting perspective on rodeos. She grew up riding horses, and for five years was a horse-mounted police officer. She says rodeos are not at all cruel to the animals, because they use mature animals that are bred and trained for that specific purpose (the ranching skills you mention). It is horseracing that draws her anger, because they use immature animals before their joints are set.
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
It is interesting that if the majority of people do not agree with this ladies position, she runs to court.
[/ QUOTE ]
This is the fundamental problem with America. The court system should throw this out before it ever makes it to a jury. Nobody is forcing this woman or her children to attend, but she wants to make sure nobody else can attend. In the near future, someone will say they don't like churches, and then sue you for attending mass.
We've been dealing with this crap for the last 30 years. The points that these idiots bring out are absolute lies. Yes once in awhile an animal breaks a bone or gets hurt. But so does every other athlete. With regard to bull riding it's usually the bull that wins. In steer wrestling you've got a 600 pound steer going against a 200lb. avg. man with just his bare hands. In roping the animals are rarely if ever hurt. In team roping there is absolutely no harm to the animal. The animals horns are wrapped and they are only roped once or twice a day and usually only two to three times a week. For gosh sakes in calf roping you can't even jerk the calf down anymore. If you do it's a big fine and you are disqualified. So basically it amounts to getting roped and spun around, BIG DEAL.
Last year I watched a friend at the NFR win the world by making a heroic run. He jumped off and the calf went the wrong way and he completely tore just about everything in his knee. Somehow he finished that run. It's not the animal that wins the majority of the time. There are 1000x more human injuries than there are animal injuries. Seems to me the odds are pretty good in the animals favor.
Most of these animals only work for 10 seconds max at a time. So they get worked for 10-20 seconds a day. The rest of the day they are fed like a king and get to lay around and do nothing. It's just absolute garbage what is said about the rodeo industry.
It would almost sound like all contact sports should be banned and then as a followup all activities that may be injurious to people should also be stopped. After all a person should be granted the same amount of protection as an animal.
Cambridge, NY, in the beautiful foothills of the Green Mountains.
Posts
42
Re: Interesting Article
I guess many people take things to extreme, or they feel that they have no other options, but the extreme. Just like every thing else- there are good, professionally run rodeos and there are bad ones. Just like there are good zoos with re-created habitats and bad ones with animals in small cages and who are poorly fed. The same thing with the circus. I know of many people who would not go to a circus and watch tigers jump through hoops. These tigers are not overtly being hurt, although we do not know too much about the training techniques used. I think the point this woman is trying to make is that we humans, are not here on earth to have animals under our control and to exploit them for our entertainment. Most of us would probably be out raged at the "performing bear" routine of not to long ago, and the still in existance bull fight. Should we have open dog or cock fights for entertainment? Some cultures do not see anything wrong with that, yet most Americans do. Yes, animals work for us and maybe some people see these "tasks" that are shown during a rodeo, as a normal task for that animal (horse or steer), but in a rodeo it is being done for enjoyment, not work. A cowboy, or anyone else, would not be riding a steer in "real life", nor in this day an age would we "break" a horse. More gentler methods work better. Yes, you would rope a calf, but usually a rodeo has nothing to do with real ranch work. This woman has young children, that I assume she feels would get the wrong idea about how we should relate to animals. We should appreciate them for what they are. For their natural beauty and natural behavior. Yes, I do ride a horse, but the horse is not put through any unnatural paces or stunts. I do not make my animals do anything that would scare them. If a rodeo horse or steer gets injured even once in it's rodeo lifetime, then that is once too many. It was injured for our enjoyment, and that we should not tolerate. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
We should appreciate them for what they are. For their natural beauty and natural behavior.
Well that's kind of a croc then. You say you own a horse and ride one. If you want to appreciate their natural beauty and behavior go out west and turn your horse loose with the wild mustangs. See how naturally they tear into your horse. A horse was not born so that you could ride him. Their natural habitat is out on the range and not having someone on their back. If you go out and try to ride a horse in the wild that horse will just as soon kill you as look at you. Sure you can tame them but they tame lions as well. A horse is no more of a domestic animal than a lion or a tiger. Why do you think there are so many horse related injuries and deaths. Whatever "horse whispering" nonsense you want to put to how a horse is BROKE, so be it. But it is just that. Whether you send one around in a pen or let one buck until they give in is no different. In the end they turn out the same. Whatever you want to call it is just semantics. Heck a plant is alive too. They grow, breathe, live, die, they go through genetic alterations. No difference. So unless you want to equate plants with us then no animals are not any farther up the chain than they are. Abuse I sure do disagree with 100%. But animals certainly are here on the earth for our enjoyment and our use. Just like the air we breathe and the plants that we eat.
It's kind of like saying that you're a little pregnant. You say you just ride horses naturally. Well there's no such thing as just a little naturally horse riding. You obviously choose roundpen training which is surely not natural for a horse. NATURAL, HA. Have you ever seen a mare run her foal around in a circle until the foal would come to her? Have you ever seen the lead horse run the others in a circle until they give up? Heck no. They kick, bite, and every other thing to establish their hierarchy. So please tell me how a roundpen is natural? No more natural than getting on a horses back and letting them buck and then quit. Bucking is natural for a horse.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote