Bluey–you have shown yourself over the years to be a person who thinks that anything people do to/with horses is okay. I strongly disagree with much of what you write, although I think you do consider yourself to be a horse lover. I think we owe compassion to our fellow animals, and that compassion prohibits much of what rodeo contractors do.
Compassion doesn’t prohibit anything. It’s a feeling. You don’t get to dictate what someone else is supposed to do in the name of “compassion”…outside outright abuse, which has specific legal definitions.
You can feel Compassion for an animal completely unnecessarily. ZOMG, that poor bucking horse, the cowboy SPURS him and that belt is crushing his BALLS! Sorry Hun. That there’s a mare, and she’ll eagerly load in that chute ALL DAY LONG to buck because she wants to.
While there is a lot of criticism about rodeos and stock contractors, a stunning volume of that noise is based on outright misinformation and ignorance. Sure there are bad stock contractors, and bad rodeo cowboys. Mostly they are good people who like and respect animals. Just like there are bad rescuers who take horses out of natural - type environments where they were mostly perfectly happy and healthy, and then proceed to struggle and try and force them into being pets, barely being able to afford feed…as well as great rescues, who take horses out of crummy situations and give them chances at cushy lives where they thrive.
Hermein, I know most people think of horses as companion animals as the use of the horse for work has diminished but in the end they are still livestock.
However that does not mean I have no empathy for my animals, horses specifically. I do use my horses for work and pleasure(show/rodeo) but I care about their welfare. You only get what you put in and I find that true of any livestock.
I believe you are basing your opinions on rodeo animals from your assumptions of what may or may not have happened to your one horse. Which is too bad, I know of many horses that got a second chance from stock contractors because no one else wanted them.
Unfortunately I often find that “compassion” is more for the humans sake not the animals, especially if one feels the need to let others know about it.
