As with calf roping, steer tripping puts a rodeo animal at extreme risk of injury or death.
Animals also injured and killed in other rodeo events.
Horses (and cattle) have to be shipped from one rodeo to the next, often in double-deck trailers.
During the course of my lifetime, I have been a farmer, bareback bronc rider in the rodeo, a large animal veterinarian, a medical researcher, a meat inspector, a state veterinarian, and a prosecutor.
These calves would still be with their mothers on pasture if they were not in the rodeo.
I talked with a rodeo performer, a retired nurse, a General Motorsemployee, and dozens of others.
We found him at the rodeo grounds, holding the REINS of a horse.
In my opinion, and based on my extensive training and experience, it is impossible to create a humane rodeo.
Once more, you might (wrongly) think we're talking about the standard boring barrel racing on rodeo with horses and stuff like that, but no.
The rodeo ends Friday and the evaluators will turn in their feedback sheets to help determine what systems will best meet their future warfighting needs.