Use of Animals in the Rodeo

However, for a long time, man has been dominating animals most aspects because animals are believed to be under man’s control. Sometimes the control that man has over the animals may be harmful to the animals used. The control of man on the animals has been a great debate in the world because many people believe that since man has the full authority over animals, mainly due to animals inability to reason and speak, they can do anything they deem right on the animals. However, there is a section of world’s population that believe that animals too have rights to be protected under the law. In many countries animals have been used for entertainment. These type of sport is popular in the province of Alberta in Canada.

Men are the main participants in this kind of sports, Kelm, 2007 (111). Most of the men who participate in this sports always move from one rodeo event to the other through the year. According to Lawrence (1984), most of the rodeo participants become nomads because they can register for numerous events in a single day (17). Hence they are always camp together as they wait for the next events. Often, the animals are made to behave in a way that is unnatural to their wild settings. During training, the animals are also kept in confinement for a very long time as they are taught to jump and behave in ascertain manner that is not consistent with their daily lives. For a long time, there has been a varying ethical debate of the use of animals for the rodeo.

Different regulations have emerged in different countries to control rodeo. According to Regan (1987), the traditional view of the use animals has been that human should be allowed to use animals as they wish (77). Most of the wild animals naturally duel in large spaces that the conventional rodeo arena and the training areas cannot provide. The animals used for the rodeo are also treated differently to ensure that they win the races they participate. According to Grant, during the rodeo, the animals involved are required to jump faster and higher than they are used to, and when they are not participating in rodeo, they are confined to small areas where they are further trained for the next rodeo event (55). These practices are unnatural to the animals leading to diverse effects on their health and well-being.

Animals kept in captivity cannot freely interbreed due to the limited space and the fear of humans around them. Rodeos are popular sports in Canada due to the perceived notion that rodeos are a form of preserving the western culture. Most of the activities that take place in rodeos include branding, roping and herding of the horses, Gerber and Young (2013). Some of these activities bring a lot of suffering to the horses and the bulls involved. The horse’s freedom is undermined by these events as they are expected to act unnaturally during these competitions. Most of the horses and the bulls used in rodeos are expected by their owners to perform exemplary and win the competition. McGreevy and McLean (2010) state that it is quite hard for the exact inhuman treatment to be fully exposed to humans due to the inability of the horses and the bulls to explain their situation (206).

The negative effects of the sports activities involving horses and bulls can, therefore, be determined only after a major negative outcome is evident, but it may be hard to explore the activities that led to the outcome. The absence of physical outcomes makes it quite hard to condemn the inhuman treatment of horses strongly. The human desire to lead the rodeos has led to ever breeding and unusual feeding of the horses and the bulls involved. Most of the participants believe that the higher the breeding rates of the animals, the higher the chances of getting superior animals that will win most of the rodeo competition. However, it is also true that training of the horses and the bulls are also beneficial to them.

McGreevy and McLean (2010) argue that ethical training of the animals can be behaviorally and environmentally enriching for the animals due to the absence of other natural stimuli (205). The horse and the bulls are naturally supposed to adapt to numerous stimuli in a large environment if they are left in the wild. However, when they are domesticated, the natural stimuli that make them react to different aspects of their environment always reduces. Through training, these reactions can be instilled in the animals by making them react to the least of stimuli from the trainers. For instance, according to McGreevy and McLean (2010), it has been proposed that the horses and bulls should not be bundled together during sum activities such as bareback (205). A new method of isolating every participant and then making them compete against time has been proposed and implemented.

These improvements will improve the welfare of the animals involved in different sports activities. Rodeo sports has been popular for a very long time. However, it is evident that this practice sometimes poses a danger to the animals used. Animal pleasure and its moral significance.  Applied animal behaviour science, 118(3), 208-216. Lawrence, E. A.  Rodeo: An anthropologist looks at the wild and the tame. McGreevy, P. D. Ethical equitation: Capping the price horses pay for human glory.  Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 5(4), 203-209. Mellis, A. Shani, A. Pizam, A. Tourists' attitudes toward the use of animals in tourist attractions.  Tourism Analysis, 14(1), 85-101. Turner, J.