SPRINGFIELD, IL -- The National High School Finals Rodeo packed up its act and left town after the last July 28 performance at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Good riddance.
What to make of this obsolete form of entertainment, in which high school kids are thrown off bucking horses – horses that would not buck without a tight cinch around their groins – something that may be torture for the horses.
Here is a “sport” that requires the abuse of animals – the bucking horses and bulls, the calves lassoed and roughly thrown down to be tied up, steers thrown to the ground as their necks are twisted, and even, in a most bizarre act, helpless goats tethered to a rope watching running horses approach them, then teenage riders leaping to the ground to throw them down roughly and tie them up.
This is entertainment? Actually it quickly gets boring as a spectator sport.
Is it also child abuse and animal abuse?
Child abuse because how many teens would be involved in rodeo without peer pressure and parental pressure?
And how many teens are injured in these dangerous activities? Most don’t wear helmets, risking serious head trauma.
During a July 26 barrel race, a horse slipped and fell on its young female rider. Both got up to walk out of the arena, but who knows whether they suffered long term harm.
The charge of animal abuse stems from the creatures trapped in rodeos without a choice. The constant traveling is abusive for animals involved in these acts, as well as the torture and abuse they endure so the teens can compete.
How then to explain why rodeos persist despite criticism and documentation of actual abuse by animal rights activists?
Rodeos are obviously a form of theater/show biz and conspicuous consumption. The pricey cowboy costumes, the pageantry, the flaunting of expensive quarter horses worth as much as a car, the expensive saddles, the rigs required to haul them – it all screams “look at me! “Look at what I can afford!”
Like all hobbies that become subcultures, rodeo no doubt offers the participants, parents and children, respite from otherwise drab lives.
The pros who handle the livestock and the events make their livings from the work, and of course promote it.
The mystery is why anyone pays to see it. And why public officials don’t crack down and prosecute abuse when it occurs, and refuse to welcome rodeos to town.
At the Springfield event, animal rights activists were in the audience to film the show and document any illegal animal abuse that occurred. Their presence may have deterred some forms of abuse, such as cattle prods, which are illegal in Illinois.
Local and state officials typically turn a blind eye to rodeos and other traveling animal acts, preferring instead to focus on the money the participants bring to town.
Very sad.
--Elaine Hopkins
Comments