Langley Advance May 25,2007
Our View: Barbarism gone past its time

Cloverdale Rodeo organizers are taking a lot of heat for their decision to cut four events from their competition line-up.

Cowboys are crying the blues because they won't be able to rope calves and fling them to the ground, they won't be able to wrench steers' necks and wrestle them into submission, they won't be able gang up on frightened heifers for team-roping, and they won't be able to kick, gouge, or ear-bite terrified cows while bashing their udders in hopes of being the first to squirt out a tiny bit of milk on a parade ground with hundreds or thousands of fans screaming their enthusiasm.

They won't be able to do any of those things in Cloverdale, at any rate.

And frankly, it's about time.

We live in a society that openly disdains such primitive and barbaric activities - we hardly dare call them sports - as cock-fighting and pitting dogs against each other in hopes that they will tear each other to shreds. They're still allowed in other parts of the world, but here, those who take part are criminals, by definition.

There are no bullfights allowed here. They still take place in some parts of the world where sensibilities are different from ours. Here, the thought of running a bull into exhaustion and stabbing him to death in front of a multitude of blood-thirsty patrons is no longer considered a civilized "sport."

Revelling in the death or suffering of dumb animals is deemed worse than barbaric. People are thrown in jail for that sort of thing.

So it's actually a wonder that some of the more violent and animal-unfriendly rodeo events have lasted as long as they have in an environment in which civil people have long since discarded similarly barbaric pastimes.

Kudos to the Cloverdale Rodeo folks.

- B.G.