Time to end rodeo days

The other morning I tuned in to a local radio station that offers several liberal programs, KTRC-AM, as I always do Monday through Friday, then immediately tuned out again because I was side-swiped by a commercial for the annual Rodeo de Santa Fe horror show, which promoted it falsely as harmless family fun.

I sent a protest email to the general manager, who replied somewhat ambiguously and tersely that he didn’t disagree. Responding that he was being euphemistic and vague, I wrote that I would make it a point to boycott his station indefinitely. I also commented that my fellow liberals are all on board for human rights, but sadly and quite irrationally, most can’t get worked up about (nonhuman) rights. I guess they like their bacon cheeseburgers and leather motorcycle jackets a little too much.

This is not meant as fingerpointing at the radio station so much as the whole idea of liberals in general not supporting animal advocacy.

The reality is that rodeos are bad news for ranch animals. Horses, bulls, calves, lambs, etc., are forced to perform unnatural stunts that terrify, injure or kill them, all in the name of human entertainment and dominance. They’re brutally jabbed with electric prods to encourage them to put on a better show; they’re violently roped and tossed around like so much trash; and they’re forced to contend with riders who try to hang on long enough to win a fancy belt buckle and a little fame (the nameless animals, of course, never get anything for their suffering, often not even veterinary care). While these torture sessions are being conducted in full public view, with the fans roaring in delight, rodeo clowns act the role of foolish heroes, throwing themselves comically in the path of these frightened animals.

Rodeos are bread and circuses for the discontented masses, a cowardly way for them to achieve dominance over helpless and innocent creatures in order to feel better about themselves. Have humans still not evolved to the point that they respect all animal life, not just human life? We know the answer to that. In largely liberal Santa Fe, animal abuse is alive and well at Rodeo de Santa Fe.

Ardeth Baxter is an animal advocate who’s lived in Santa Fe for more than 21 years.