There’s a certain nostalgia for the Wild West, but horses and cows do not deserve to pay with their lives just to satisfy some humans’ desire to play “cowboy." Rodeos are nothing but a show of force and domination that belongs firmly in history books.

This month at the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada, three horses were euthanized after sustaining catastrophic injuries in chuckwagon races (in which teams of horses are forced to pull covered wagons around a track at literally breakneck speeds), as was a steer after his neck was twisted backward and he crashed to the ground during a rodeo.

These races have cost more than 70 horses their lives in the Calgary Stampede alone— one or more nearly every year. The track is referred to as the “half-mile of hell” for good reason. Yet a spokesperson for the Stampede still brazenly insists, “There are some things that we can’t anticipate.”

Animals forced to participate in rodeos are hit, kicked, spurred, slammed to the ground and goaded into violent displays. In bucking and bull-riding events, a flank strap is bound tightly around the midsections of horses and bulls, causing them to buck wildly in an effort to rid themselves of the constricting band. They routinely sustain broken necks, backs and legs.

Last month, two horses died due to injuries sustained during the bronc-riding event in a Wyoming rodeo. One was killed instantly, and the other was euthanized later. At a California rodeo in April, a calf sustained a fracture in the tie-down event and three steers sustained leg fractures in team roping events. The list goes on and on.

On the opening night of the San Diego Rodeo earlier this year, a panicked horse took off, crashed head-first into a metal safety barricade and collapsed. Event organizers quickly shielded the crowd from the ugly scene with a tarp as the downed horse was trucked off the field. “I was there and saw it ... it was horrific,” wrote one witness.

Participants rarely face any consequences, even when animals are fatally injured, since rodeos generally “police” themselves. Animals used in these events are specifically excluded from the meager protections of the federal Animal Welfare Act, and many states exempt rodeos from their anti-cruelty laws because they don’t apply to “normal agricultural practices” and/or “livestock.” Pain-inflicting devices used in rodeos, including electric prods (“hotshots”) and spurs, aren’t prohibited outright.

It’s clear that rodeos consider the living, feeling individuals they exploit to be cheap, expendable and replaceable. When they become too worn-out or broken-down to continue on the hellish circuit of events, they’re typically sent on a one-way trip to the slaughterhouse.

Even some rodeo insiders are starting to acknowledge the cruelty of these events, particularly calf roping — commonly seen across the U.S. and Canada — in which terrified young calves charge desperately out of a chute and often sustain neck and back injuries as they’re lassoed and yanked to the ground.

When asked about the controversy surrounding calf roping, one rodeo competitor told the The Indianapolis Star, “Well even I can’t defend that one.”

Compassionate people would never support any event that causes animals pain and suffering. Please steer clear of all rodeos.

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Jennifer O’Connor is a senior writer with the PETA Foundation, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.

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