Calf Dressing -- Audience Participation in Abuse

Rodeo supporters claim to support Western American history and culture. So let me get this straight. THIS is what real cowboys did on the ranch?

Calf Dressing is a rodeo event designed to allow the audience to get in on the animal abuse.

The idea as simple as the minds of those involved. Teams of rodeo contestants and spectators gang up on individual calves. The teams twist their victims' necks and tails, and grab them by the lips, nostrils, ears or whatever.

Brutality is the order of the day. The more the animals struggle and cry out, the more fun for the phony cowboys. After completely stressing, exhausting and dominating the young victims, the abusers force them into human clothes -- often frilly women's underwear. How sick is that?

The "event" bears a disturbing resemblance to a gang rape -- all the more ironic because women are usually involved in the abuse. 

 

A number of these calf dressing scenes were shot at a high school rodeo in Charleston, Illinois in May 2002. The rodeo was sanctioned by the National High School Rodeo Association.