Rodeos – Tradition is Not a Justification for Cruelty

Rodeos - Tradition does Not Justify Cruelty | Meat Your Future
Photo credit from 2017 Houston Rodeo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

The 2018 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo officially starts today.

Many revere it as our city’s “signature event”, attracting over two million people every year. Artists like Keith Urban and Brad Paisley share the stage with calf roping, bull riding and livestock competitions.

The continued popularity of this event makes us wonder when, as a society, we will start to demonstrate basic decency to stop treating animals as “objects” for our most trivial purposes. Is not the moral imperative to do so obvious in this calf’s terrified eyes?

Instead of celebrating the cruelty of this Western themed animal circus, can we not instead come together to respect and stop violating the most fundamental interests of others?

Please do not support rodeos, or any other completely unnecessary exploitation of animals – be it for entertainment, clothing, food, vivisection or otherwise. It’s the very least we owe them.


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