Rodeos Kill Animals: Let's Stop Pretending They Don't
Now You See it, Now You Don't!
The following article was too hot for Psychology Today to handle. After being up on their site for approximately 24 hours, they choose to take it down. But Dr. Bekoff stands by every word he wrote.
More incidents of pain and death at rodeos demand we stop excusing them
July 21, 2013
by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D.
In a previous essay titled "Horse Shocked and Dies at New Jersey Rodeo: Time to Ban Them" I wrote about pain, suffering, and death at two different rodeos. Now, additional instances of inexcusable harm and death have come to light, along with another incident of extreme animal abuse.
Steer killed during "slack event" and photographers blocked from filming the aftermath
In a horrific and totally avoidable incident at the California Rodeo in Salinas, California, supported by Macy's, a steer was killed when a horse trampled him during a bull dogging/steer wrestling event. You can read the gory details here and see a video here. To quote an article from the Central Coast News, "The steer died during one of the slack events for the rodeo. When there are more cowboys than slots in the rodeo, they compete and post their times during slack times, which is generally held the morning of the rodeo or the day before."
