If rodeos ( and other events like it) were not cruel, then why do SPCA's and Humane Societies around the world condemn them and write official position statements against them? If they were not cruel, there would be no need to do this would there?

As a former long time horse person and rodeo participant (cutting horses, barrel racing, team penning, snaffle bit futurity, dressage, jumping, equitation, ) I can assure you that rodeos ARE cruel in many ways, it's just kept hidden from the public for obvious reasons. To those who think what they see at the event is cruel, I can only assure you that what you don't see that goes on behind the scenes, is far worse. I witnessed it for many years (in Canada and the USA) but could do nothing to change it on my own, so I stopped participating in any horse activities. And the cattle are treated even worse. I worked for a year in the US on a working cutting horse ranch, and I handled several hundred head of cattle a day, sometimes on horseback, sometimes driving an ATV. I can't tell you how many cattle fatally injured themselves because they were panicked and worked themselves into a frenzy while trying to escape the human "games". Not to mention the horrible transportation people who arrived with their electric shock prodder to move fresh animals in and take the tired ones away. And if they were lame or sick do you think they got to see a vet? Not! These animals were considered "downers" and were a normal part of the cattle moving process where victims are both expected and then ignored.

And the horses, well that's a whole other issue. The public has no clue as to the amount of training (which includes using spurs, whips and other cruel devices) that goes into making a horse a champion. Endless hours of going around in circles performing, getting corrected (kicked and beaten) when they do it wrong, people expecting them to behave like robots, the whole thing is sick. It was the same no matter which event the horse was being trained for. Thankfully, in more recent years, a few "horse whisperer" type people have shown the horse world that there is a kinder and gentler way to do things, but these experts admit that the one audience they cannot reach, are the cowboys. The same ones who will be at the Cloverdale Rodeo. These men and women have been doing it the same cruel way for so long (methods passed down from other generations), and they think they are so macho, that they laugh at these kinder methods. There may be a few exceptions, but in general they are pretty brutal to their animals. I know because I was laughed at too when I spoke up and tried to make things better for the animals in my care. Not a day passed that I didn't shed tears over the way some cowboy was beating his horse into submission.

One of the worst cases I remember was a three year old stallion who was stubborn and wouldn't submit well enough for the cowboys. They didn't want to geld him because they used him for breeding, so they decided to force this stud into realizing that humans were his boss. The took him into a round pen, hobbled his legs with ropes so that if he tried to run he'd fall over, and then they taunted him with whips to make him mad. The horse got into such a state that he finally fell over, exhausted and struggling in the ropes. And they didn't stop there. After he was already down, they covered him in plastic and made him bake in the California heat for 90 minutes until his body was dehydrated and he was foaming and weak, and then the cowboys took turns climbing up on to his belly and sitting on top of him, so he had no doubt they were dominant over him. I screamed, I cried, I threw fits at these men, and they just told me if I didn't like it, to go away.

So the next time you go to a rodeo and you see perfectly groomed, physically fit, shiny horses who are performing their tasks for their masters, think about that stallion. He may be one of them, and you just bought a ticket to go and watch!