Rodeos are promoted as rough-and-tough exercises of human skill and courage in conquering the fierce, untamed beasts of the Wild West. In reality, rodeos are nothing more than manipulative displays of human domination over animals, thinly disguised as entertainment. What began in the 1800s as a skill contest among cowboys has become a show motivated by greed and big profits.(1)

The Stunts

Standard rodeo events include calf roping, steer wrestling, bareback horse and bull riding, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, steer roping, and barrel racing.(2) The animals used in rodeos are captive performers. Most are relatively tame but understandably distrustful of humans because of the harsh treatment that they have received. Many of these animals are not aggressive by nature; they are physically provoked into displaying “wild” behavior in order to make the cowboys look brave.

Tools of Torment

Electric prods, spurs, and bucking straps are used to irritate and enrage animals used in rodeos. The flank, or “bucking,” strap or rope-which is used to make horses and bulls buck-is tightly cinched around their abdomens, which causes the animals to “buck vigorously to try to rid themselves of the torment.”(3) The irritation causes the animals to buck violently, which is what the rodeo promoters want them to do in order to put on a good show for the crowds. The flank strap, when paired with spurring, causes the animals to buck even more violently, often resulting in serious injuries.(4) Former animal control officers have found burrs and other irritants placed under the flank strap.(5) In addition, the flank strap can cause open wounds and burns when the hair is rubbed off and the skin is chafed raw.(6)

Cows and horses are often prodded with an electrical “hotshot” while in the chute to rile them, causing intense pain to the animals. Peggy Larson, D.V.M.-a veterinarian who in her youth was a bareback bronc rider-said, “Bovines are more susceptible to electrical current than other animals. Perhaps because they have a huge ‘electrolyte’ vat, the rumen [one of their stomachs].”(7)

The End of the Trail

The late Dr. C.G. Haber, a veterinarian who spent 30 years as a federal meat inspector, worked in slaughterhouses and saw many animals discarded from rodeos and sold for slaughter. He described the animals as being so extensively bruised that the only areas in which their skin was attached to their flesh were the head, neck, legs, and belly. He described seeing animals “with 6-8 ribs broken from the spine, and at times puncturing the lungs.” Haber saw animals with “as much as 2-3 gallons of free blood accumulated under the detached skin.”(8) These injuries are a result of animals’ being thrown in calf-roping events or being jumped on by people from the backs of horses during steer wrestling.

Injuries and Deaths

Although rodeo cowboys voluntarily risk injury by participating in events, the animals they use have no such choice. Because speed is a factor in many rodeo events, the risk of accidents is high.

A terrified, screaming young horse burst from the chutes at the Can-Am Rodeo and, within five seconds, slammed into a fence and broke her neck. Bystanders knew that she was dead when they heard her neck crack, yet the announcer told the crowd that everything would “be all right” because a vet would see her.(9)

Incidents such as this are not uncommon at rodeos. By the end of one of the annual, nine-day Calgary Stampedes in Alberta, Canada, six animals were dead, including a horse who died of an aneurism and another who suffered a broken leg and had to be euthanized.(10) The following year, at the same event, six more animals died: five horses in the chuckwagon competition and a calf in the roping event.(11) In 2005, fear caused a stampede as horses destined for the Stampede were being herded across a bridge; some jumped and others were pushed into the river. Nine horses died.(12)

The Omak Stampede is an annual event in Washington that features the Wild Horse Race, in which tethered wild horses are released into the arena while cowboys try to mount and ride them (one horse died in 2005). The event culminates with the Suicide Race, in which horses are ridden at furious speeds down a steep hill and into the grandstand. That event killed three horses in 2004; 19 horses have lost their lives to the race in the past 20 years.(13)

During the National Western Stock Show, a horse crashed into a wall and broke his neck, and another horse broke his back after being forced to buck.(14) Dr. Cordell Leif told the Denver Post, “Bucking horses often develop back problems from the repeated poundings they take from the cowboys. There’s also a real leg injury where a tendon breaks down. Horses don’t normally jump up and down.”(15)

Calves roped while running routinely have their necks snapped back by the lasso, often resulting in neck injuries.(16) Even Bud Kerby, owner and operator of Bar T Rodeos Inc., agrees that calf roping is inhumane. He told the St. George Spectrum that he “wouldn’t mind seeing calf roping phased out.”(17) During Rodeo Houston, a bull suffered from a broken neck for a full 15 minutes before he was euthanized following a steer-wrestling competition, which was described by a local newspaper as an event in which “cowboys violently twist the heads of steers weighing about 500 pounds to bring them to the ground.”(18)

Rodeo association rules are not effective in preventing injuries and are not strictly enforced, and penalties are not severe enough to deter abusive treatment. For example, one rule states that “if a member abuses an animal by any unnecessary, non-competitive or competitive action, he may be disqualified for the remainder of the rodeo and fined $250 for the first offense, with that fine progressively doubling with each offense thereafter.” These are small fines in comparison to the large purses that are at stake. Rules allow the animals to be confined or transported in vehicles for up to 24 hours without being properly fed, watered, or unloaded.(19)

Spurn the Spurs

If a rodeo comes to your town, protest to local authorities, write letters to sponsors, leaflet at the gate, or hold a demonstration. Contact PETA for posters and fliers.

Check state and local laws to find out what types of activities involving animals are and are not legal in your area. For example, after a spectator videotaped a bull breaking his leg during a rodeo event, a Pittsburgh law prohibiting bucking straps, electric prods, and sharpened or fixed spurs in effect banned rodeos altogether, since most rodeos currently touring the country use the flank straps that are prohibited by the law.(20)

Another successful means of banning rodeos is to institute a state or local ban on calf roping, the event in which cruelty is most easily documented. Since many rodeo circuits require calf roping, eliminating it can result in the overall elimination of rodeo shows.

References

1) Ronda Quaid, “A Tip of the Hat to the Vaqueros,” Coastline 1996.
2) Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, “The Sport,” 2002.
3) Hattie Klotz, “Bucking Bronco Dies in Corel Center Rodeo,” The Ottawa Citizen 9 Aug. 1999.
4) Dr. Peggy Larson, D.V.M., M.S., J.D., e-mail to PETA, 15 Nov. 2001.
5) Ingrid Newkirk, former animal control officer, eyewitness account.
6) Chris Heidenrich, “Animal-Rights Group Protests Rodeo,” Daily Herald 17 Jul. 1998.
7) Larson.
The Humane Society of the United States, interview with C.G. Haber, D.V.M., Rossburg, Ohio, 1979.
9) Klotz.
10) “Another Horse Dies at Stampede,” CFCNplus.ca (CFCN-CTV), 13 Jul. 2001.
11) “Stampede Animal Deaths Worry Humane Society,” CBC News Online 15 Jul. 2002.
12)  ”Deadly Accidents at the Calgary Stampede,” CBC News Online 4 Jul. 2005. 13) “No Fatalities in Omak Stampede Suicide Race; One Horse Dies at Rodeo Event,” Associated Press, 16 Aug. 2005.
14) Renate Robey, “Horse Euthanized After Show Accident,” Denver Post 16 Jan. 1999.
15) Steve Lipsher, “Veterinarian Calls Rodeos Brutal to Stock,” Denver Post 20 Jan. 1991.
16) Lipsher.
17) Patrice St. Germain, “PETA: Rodeo Cruel to Animals; Rodeo Fans Say Animals Treated Well,” St. George Spectrum 15 Sep. 2001.
18) “Steer Suffers Broken Neck During Top Wrestling Run,” Houston Chronicle 17 Mar. 2006.
19) Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, “PRCA Animal Welfare Rules,” ProRodeo.com, 2003.
20) Timothy McNulty, “City Council Prodded to Ease Rules and Bring Back Rodeos,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 18 Jun. 2002.

Article reprinted from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA)

Video provided by Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK)

Video from the Humane Society of the United States

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Dogfighting—a blood “sport” in which two dogs are pitted against each other in a fighting pit and forced to rip each other to shreds in a fight to the death for the “amusement” and monetary gain of onlooking gamblers—is illegal in the United States and is a felony in every state except Idaho and Wyoming.(1) Experts estimate that tens of thousands of people are involved in professional dogfighting, while an additional 100,000 may be participating in so-called “streetfighting” or informal dogfights.(2)Forced to Fight and Left to Die

The most commonly bred dogs for fighting are Staffordshire terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, American bulldogs, and American pit bull terriers. All of them are usually referred to as pit bulls. Dogs are highly social pack animals who need and deserve love, attention, and exercise and thrive in an environment that offers the companionship of other dogs and human guardians. Dogs who are used for fighting are chained, taunted, and starved in order to trigger extreme survival instincts and encourage aggressiveness.Typically, before their first birthdays, puppies bred for fighting are placed in front of other dogs in order to test their aggression. At around 15 months, two prospective “fighters” are forced to participate in a “roll”—their first fight, which lasts about 10 minutes—followed by a second fight that lasts an hour. Survivors are chained again (sometimes with weighted logging chains) for a couple of months until they are ready for their first “show.” Breeders “train” dogs by forcing them to tread water in pools; run on a treadmill while a cat or another terrified animal, who may be someone’s stolen companion animal, is placed in a cage in front of the dog (to be caught and mauled to death as a reward afterward); and hang on with their jaws while dangling from a chain baited with meat.(3,4) The dogs are likely injected with steroids, and some breeders go so far as to sharpen their dogs’ teeth, cut off their ears (in order to prevent another dog from latching on), and add roach poison to their food so that their fur might taste bad to other dogs.(5,6)

Dogs that “win” fights are forced to fight again and again and are bred to produce profit-making puppies. One breeder who was claimed to be a particularly successful fighting dog earned $100,000 in stud fees in a single year.(7) “Rape stands,” which are routinely confiscated from large-scale dogfighting operations, are contraptions used by breeders to strap down resistant female dogs so that males can impregnate them. Dogs that do not fight or lose fights may be used as “bait” animals or may be abandoned, tortured, set on fire, electrocuted, shot, drowned, or beaten to death.

What Happens at DogfightsA dogfight could be a street fight, which lasts only a few minutes and takes place in an alley or a back yard, or it could fall under one of two levels of organized fights: hobbyist and professional.(8) Organized fights tend to be highly secretive, with word spreading by mouth or via the Internet. Participants may meet in one place and be taken en masse to another location so that even they don’t know where they’re going until they arrive.  Abandoned houses, garages, warehouses, and fields all serve as sites for dogfights—places that can be easily scouted by lookouts and quickly evacuated in advance of a raid.(9)A “pit” consists of a dirt or carpeted floor that is anywhere from 8 to 16 square feet and is surrounded by a wooden—and often portable—enclosure that is about 3 feet high. Dogs are taken to either end of the ring and released at the “face your dogs” command. Break or parting sticks are used to pry apart fighting dogs, who clamp down so fiercely that it is not uncommon for dogs to “fang” themselves (i.e., bite through their own lips).(10) The fight could go on for hours—until one dog is seriously injured or dies or, “[s]hould the police interfere, the referee … name[s] the next meeting place,” according to rules posted on a breeder’s Web site.(11)

Dogs are ranked by their “gameness”—the ability to keep fighting even when pain and loss of blood have caused their bodies to go into shock.(12) A federal prosecutor recalls a case in which one of 18 dogs found in a raid had 70 open wounds and was missing half a jaw while another dog’s body was 75 percent covered in scar tissue.(13) A Louisiana state police officer who conducts dogfighting investigations says, “When you go to where these fights have happened, you’ll find a couple of dog corpses or a pit full of blood.”(14)

The Tip of a Criminal IcebergDogfighting usually involves other crimes in addition to cruelty to animals. One infamous breeder planted “directional mines” on his property in an attempt to keep people away; a land surveyor was injured when one of these devices exploded.(15)Gambling—which is frequently illegal and often involves large sums of money—is found at many dogfights, as are firearms and other weapons that are sometimes used in violent crimes, including murder, as occurred at a Texas home when three intruders bound the wife and children of a well-known pit bull breeder and killed him for the $100,000 that he had won at a fight.(16) A detective told the

New York Daily News that “you can get more drugs and guns off the street by breaking up dog rings than you would breaking up drug rings.”(17) An Ohio sheriff says that “just about every dogfighting search warrant we’ve done, we’ve found drugs.”(18)A review of Chicago dogfighting incidents over a three-year span found that in the nearly 400 cases, more than half the dog owners had gang affiliations and almost all had been arrested at least two times.(19)

Young children are sometimes present at dogfights; Baltimore’s Health Department lists dogfighting as a child welfare issue on its Web site and cautions parents that “[c]hildren are exposed to exhibits of extreme brutality, illegal gambling, drugs, and guns associated with these cruel events.”(20)

These tortured dogs do not make good companions, as breeders commonly mate close relatives together in an effort to pass on the traits of dogs that are especially aggressive and whose instincts and training motivate them to kill other animals. “We’re sitting on a powder keg,” says one Ohio dog warden.(21)

What You Can DoFederal law bans interstate commerce import and export of fighting dogs, and the penalty is three years in jail with a $250,000 fine.(22) But as a Texas sheriff remarked, “If you don’t know it’s going on, there’s not a whole lot you can do. It’s organized crime.” Officials often stumble across dogfighting operations accidentally while searching property for other reasons. For instance, in 2007, authorities were searching Michael Vick’s property in rural Virginia for suspected drug activity when they discovered dogs who were tied to car axles with logging chains as well as dogfighting equipment, including treadmills, chains, whips, and injectable drugs.(23)Dogs raised for fighting are usually chained (or “tethered”), which is a safety hazard for the dogs and the community. A study published in

Pediatrics magazine reported that “[b]iting dogs were significantly more likely … to be chained” and nearly three times as likely to attack than dogs who were not tethered.(24) While many cities and counties have addressed this cruel and dangerous practice in an effort to prevent tragedies from striking near home, others consider such legislation only after chained dogs maul children in their areas. For more information on how you can get your community to enact an ordinance that bans or at least restricts tethering, please visit HelpingAnimals.com.If you suspect that dogfighting is happening in your neighborhood, contact local law enforcement authorities.

References1) CNN.com, “Dogfighting a Booming Business, Experts Say,” 18 Jul. 2007.
2) CNN.com.
3) Bill Burke, “Bloodsport. Dogfighting Once Had a Following Limited to the Rural South. But in the Age of the Internet, This Violent, Illegal Activity Has Seen a Cultural Shift,” The Virginian-Pilot 17 Jun. 2007.
4) Julian Walker and Tom Campbell, “The Growth of Dogfighting,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch 3 Jul. 2007.
5) Burke.
6) Childs Walker, “Dogfight ‘Culture’ Reaches to Baltimore; Officials Link Bloody Pastime With Drugs, Gun Dealing, Gangs,” The Baltimore Sun 1 Jun. 2007.
7) Burke.
Walker and Campbell.
9) Renée C. Lee, “Dogfight Culture Thrives on Secrecy: Lack of Police Training Hinders Enforcement, Animal Welfare Experts Contend,” The Houston Chronicle 4 Sept 2007.
10) Drew Jubera, “Dogfighting: A Shadow World of Bloodlust,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 20 Jul. 2007.
11) G.A. Trahan, “American Pit Bull Terrier ‘Cajun Rules,’” Balkan Boys’ Kennels, 25 Jun. 2007.
12) Associated Press, “Vick Case Latest Stain on Pit Bull’s Changing Image,” 25 Jul. 2007.
13) Tom Weir, “Vick Case Sheds Light on Dark World of Dogfighting,” USA Today 7 Jul. 2007.
14) Weir.
15) Burke.
16) Lee.
17) Lisa Olson, “Dogfighting World Is Inhumane Society,” New York Daily News 19 Jul. 2007.
18) Mark Gillispie, “Brutal Underground Sport Comes to Light; Secrets of the Dogfighting World Unleashed as Federal Officials Look at Case of NFL’s Vick,” Plain Dealer 10 Jun. 2007.
19) Walker.
20) Baltimore City Health Department, “Dog Fighting: Why You Should Care,” 25 Jul. 2007.
21) Gillispie.
22) CNN.com.
23) WAVY-TV 10, “Vick Claims No Knowledge of Situation on His Property,” 28 Apr. 2007.
24) Kenneth A. Gershman et al., “Which Dogs Bite? A Case-Control Study of Risk Factors,” Pediatrics 93 (1994): 913-7. 
Article from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.