If ever there were a completely gratuitous abuse of animals, and often baby animals at that, all done for the sheer thrill and bravado of it, it is rodeo.”
–Matthew Scully, Dominion
“The 18-year-old rodeo queen and her princess told me that rodeo people, including themselves, ‘hated democrats, environmentalists, and gays.’ I was astonished that their political and social outlook could be reduced to such simple platitudes of hate. And why?”
–Joan Burbick, Rodeo Queens and the American Dream
“Despite their apparent warmth and social graces, ranchers seem to have a special hardness expressed as a diminished regard for life, creatures, and the designs of nature. A willingness to resort to violence—bare knuckles, vigilante-type actions, and the use of weapons—is shallowly concealed and easily set in motion. The rodeo, with its violence, physical abuses, and man-over-beast theme, seems to be a manifestation of this attitude toward surroundings. Force has always been a way of life among cattlemen.”
–Denzel and Nancy Ferguson, Sacred Cows at the Public Trough
“Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cockfighting, bullfighting and rodeos are cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent toward all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.”
–Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers, from a letter to Action for Animals, 12/26/90
“Calf roping is not a pleasant event, and bears no comparison with what actually happens on a ranch.”
–Monty Roberts, The Man Who Listens to Horses
