Rodeo Essay

Animals that compete in rodeos are being forced to display “wild behaviors for the entertainment of the audience. At the end of a rodeo, most animals end up with broken ribs, backs, legs; punctured lungs; deep internal organ bruising; hemorrhaging; ripped tendons; torn ligaments and muscles, or snapped necks. A lot of the time an animal has to lay in agonizing pain until it dies because the cowboys forget about it until the end of the rodeo. Some of the animals have to be euthanized, while some are sent to slaughterhouses to be slaughtered. Animals that compete in every event in a rodeo can become undependable if they are taken care of properly after an event. Professional rodeo action consists of two types of competitions—timed events and rough stock events. In timed events, such as, steer wrestling and calf roping, cowboys and cowgirls compete against the clock. A contestant’s goal is to

The cowboy must catch the steer by the horns, stop the steer’s momentum, and wrestle it to the ground with all four of its legs and head pointing in the same direction. The bulldogger has an assistant called a hazer, who rides along the steer’s right side to keep it running in a straight line. Steer wrestling requires speed, technique, and strength because it is the hardest and quickest event in a rodeo. The bulldogger starts out on horseback in a box and the steer is loaded into a narrow chute. A breakaway rope barrier is attached to the steer and stretched across the open end of the box. The steer gets a head start that is determined by the size of the arena. When the steer gets to the advantage point, the barrier is released and the bulldogger takes off in pursuit. The bulldogger is not allowed to break the barrier before the steer reaches his head start, or a ten second penalty is added to the bulldogger’s final