After forwarding the original post above to another message board, one that is a rescue for horses, I received many rebuttals and rather harsh statements about rodeos being necessary as entertainment and practise for cowboys who rope and ride on the range.
This was my reply to those posts:

When people point out that whatever the issue is that is being discussed is referred to as: "what our ancestors used to do", I usually reply that our ancestors did many things that we now find socially and morally offensive ie: children & poor people were put into workhouses; blacks and native americans were used as slaves and/or annhilated; you get the drift.

I also like to remind people that I actually remember a time we had to get an operator to connect the telphone line in order for us to make a call; and when it became automated, many folks were very upset at the loss of jobs for those operators. Yet today, the phone companies employ thousands more people. Just because there is forward thinking and movement in society, does not always mean everyone loses - it just means that things change, and we will always have to learn to adapt to change.

I do agree that we have done many, many things that have damaged our planet - destroying habitat and polluting our atmosphere are just two that come to mind - but we are now stepping back and saying: "What can we do differently; how can we stop things from getting worse?" We don't continue the actions that we recognize today as harmful to the planet and/or its inhabitants, just because we always did it that way.

I don't believe that there are very many farms that produce animals for meat that still use cowboys to wrangle; I don't believe there is a great need for men and women to wrestle and rope the animals in order to practise these outdated skills. I do believe it is still in the name of entertainment and glory and prize money.

Perhaps those who love animals need to project your favourite dog, cat or horse into the same situation as the calves that are chased and roped and yanked by the neck onto the ground and traumitized - would you like to see your pet mistreated that way? I sure wouldn't, even if it is 'not often that they get hurt'. Given the number of rodeos across the country, even once a rodeo is too often.

As for the fact that saddles and other items are made from the cows - that is a whole other topic for discussion. In a world that is rapidly understanding just how other species are used for our own selfish purposes, perhaps we will eventually get to the point that we will all make the decision to have a 'gentler' diet and not kill and use any other animal, even for food. I do not believe that any creature exists on this earth for human purposes. And just because everyone 'always did it' is no longer a valid excuse for the continued misuse of animals.