it has nothing to do with getting them to buck... it's to get them out of the gate asap.
Posted on 02/25/2008 5:17:23 PM PST by SandRat
An Illinois-based animal-rights organization is claiming that horses at this year’s Fiesta de Los Vaqueros were treated with unnecessary cruelty.
An agency called SHARK, or Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, has filed a complaint Monday morning with the animal services division in Arizona’s Department of Agriculture because horses were shocked during the rodeo, said Janet Enoch, a SHARK investigator.
Steve Hindi, SHARK’s president and founder, said he took video footage of horses being shocked with a prod that can deliver what he described as much 6,000 volts of painful electricity.
In a video posted on the video sharing Web site YouTube.com, men can be seen pressing a black device against the hide of horses once a rider is on top of them and the stall’s gate swings open.
Hindi said shocking the horses with such a prod is a painful and cruel way to get the animals to buck. He said his organization isn’t opposed to rodeos, but it does work to make sure animals aren’t treated cruelly when they take place.
Gary Williams, the General Manager of the Tucson Rodeo, said animals aren’t treated cruelly at La Fiesta de los Vaqueros and it’s important to remember that a horse’s hide is much thicker than a human’s .
Hindi has attacked many rodeos in the past, Williams said.
“It’s pretty typical of Steve Hindi and his efforts at discrediting rodeos,” he said.
Delivering a shock can be a humane way to get livestock to move from one place to another, Williams said. The handlers of the horses deliver the shock to get them out of a stall when the gate opens so they don’t start bucking early, which could injure the horse or its rider, he said.
Beutler & Son Rodeo Co., based in Elk City, Okla., owns the animals used in the Tucson Rodeo, Williams said. The owners of the animals aren’t going to mistreat them because animals that have been abused don’t perform well in rodeos, he said.
Williams said there have never been allegations of cruelty at the Tucson Rodeo in the past. Hindi said this is the first time SHARK has investigated the Tucson Rodeo. The organzition has a small number of people working for it and there are many rodeos that its employees investigate, Hindi said.
it has nothing to do with getting them to buck... it's to get them out of the gate asap.
“shocked with a prod that can deliver what he described as much 6,000 volts of painful electricity.”
Well...I’ve got an electric fence around some 8 or 9 acres of pasture for my eight horses. According to the manufacturer it’s charge is up to 10,000 volts, on a fence up to five miles in length. At some point, every one of those critters has actually popped his or her nose onto that wire. They jump and dart away pretty quick; they squeal in surprise. But, none of them have EVER been injured by the fence...the amperage is far too low to be injurious. Citing voltage only is a scare tactic used by the PETA folks and their wannabe imitators to raise peoples’ hackles and rouse the rabble.
Folks who supply critters to rodeos, in my experience, are much more humane and conscientious in their care than many one- and two-horse families.
In fact, the family horse is under greater threat of cruelty now, thanks to the folks at PETA and the others who were successful in stopping horse slaughter operations in the US in recent years. Now, many older horses are being simply turned out, turned loose in national forests, state forests, or just turned loose, because their owners have no idea how to manage the geriatric needs of older horses.
The real criminals, here, are PETA and their imitators...
Since PETA is not mentioned in the article, why did you add them to the headline?
As a Grabber
All your undies are belong to us!
I worked at several horse farms over the years and I was the unofficial electric fence tester. It was never intentional but I was constantly touching the fencing.
That kind of zap is no worse that a hard tap with a whip or a jab with a spur and it gets the equal amount of attention. Heck, my dog has an underground electric fence and I still occasionally zap myself carrying her collar off the property. Same voltage, no biggie.
Really? Why do these men (especially the 1st one) look so nervous after shocking the horse? Just wondering.
Here's the (You Tube) video: Horses Shocked at 2008 Tucson PRCA Rodeo.
I'm just curious what HairOfTheDog's opinion is on this since I'm not an expert on horses.
just an fyi, it's the "cinch strap" that makes them buck.... i guess they didn't know what that is though
These rodeo horses are pros and they know the game. The riders are pros too and they look afraid because they know they’re in for a contest with a horse that could win or lose him/her a lot of money. There is no animal cruelty involved, just a big “here we go again”.
Rodeos are not cruel even though some PETA wannabe group wants us to think so.
Have you ever watched a rodeo? The horses are well groomed and in excellent weight. I’ve never seen a lame one.
There are horse sports that are much more cruel than what rodeo horses go through. Have you ever seen a 5 gaited Saddlebred’s life? It’s horrid. Their feet are grown out so long with padding added that they never see the outdoors. The trainers use everything from flare guns to fire extinguishers to get them going.
They race 2 year old TB’s before their knees have even fused.
The difference between these disciplines and the rodeo, money and influence.
Don’t listen to some PETA wannabe group. FR has agreed for years that PETA is full of it, now we need to listen to this group?
True, that's why they never use mares.
bingo...
And nearly 20,000 ohms.
>>An agency called SHARK, or Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, ...<<
SHARK??? LOL!!
I belong to SHARKBCT: Showing Animals Respect and Kindness by Cooking Them.
I think it comes down to the fact that SHARK takes all cases of animal abuse to represent all animal owners. Using their own logic, that means PETA represents all animal rights organizations. So if PETA were to have an 80% higher death rate in their animal shelters than the national average (which they do) then that would make SHARK equally guilty of hypocracy. I also notice on SHARKS YouTube they block any comments that disagree with their “facts.” Wonder why that is? It must be because fear makes you give them money. They can take any amount to salary themselves and write it off as “administration fees.” Typically 85-97% of the money you give them goes into their own pockets.
That’s not why. The cinch strap goes in front of the legs, not over the genitals. It simply corrects their bucking form. They use stallions for temprament.
That’s odd. This says SHARK does not oppose all rodeo’s but look at this quote from their site:
“How unfortunate! A representative of Nelson, a most unpleasant woman, stated that he has been involved in rodeos all his life. That may be the case, but we would submit that if Willie is truly a caring person interested in the humane treatment of horses and other animals, he should stop supporting and doing business with rodeos.”
They have also ‘outed’ Miley Cyrus and several other musicians for performing at rodeos. Have a look at their bs here: www.sharkonline.org. By the way, org means admin fees!
You are obviously not familiar with the anatomy of stallions. I am, and you cannot place a strap in front of the hind legs without affecting the genitals.
Darn... that’s close !!!!
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