I was so bothered by the photograph that I couldn't get it out of my head and started making notes on the bus ride to work, where friends sympathized. Last year's Stampede claimed three horses, two in the chucks and one in the rodeo.

The idea that rodeo is a sport is deceivingly false. In real sport, participants agree to the rules, time of play, and other protocols of their game. In a rodeo, there is only one willing participant, and that is the rider, who is required to try to stay on for at least eight seconds. The horse has no say in the matter. He is pushed into the chute, alert of the heat, smell of sweat and cheering crowds.

What puzzles me even more is that people actually pay money to see animals being jerked off their feet, choked, spurred and frightened, figuring this is some part of The Old West. It's not. Bronc riding began as a way of taming wild horses. Cowboys who were especially skilled at riding entered contests with other riders to see who was the best. This does not happen in the modern rodeo. The horse hardly ever becomes tame until it is retired and shown kindness and respect from someone. The idea is to make the horse hate all people; so that it bucks harder and higher. Rodeos stress out horses - mentally and physically. Years of pounding the dirt takes its toll on their legs. When the horse can no longer buck, it is off to a farm or kill-buyer. A defensive argument used by rodeo supporters is that rodeos save horses from slaughterhouses, but this isn't really true either. Along the border of Alberta, there are ranches where it's buck or die for even tame saddle horses.

Unlike horse racing, where the horses are bred to race and generally want to race, rodeo horses are former pets, saddle horses, cowhorses, mixed stock and wild mustangs. Rodeo horses are not bred to buck, they are made too. In horse racing, the horse also gets most of the credit, and is a extremely pampered animal.

The title comes from a book by Carol J. Adams I was reading at the time called Neither Man Nor Beast. It is an intelligent and heavily researched book which explores the relationships between men, women, and animals. Adams comes to the conclusion that in our North American society, the female kind of any species is often treated poorly and unfairly (for example, sows chained in stalls so they don't roll over on their piglets). The brutality both animals and women face is often similar in that they are both treated as inferiors, and modern mass media with its sexist and/or violent imagery unconsciously supporting violence towards animals and women.

I feel sorry too that this is taught in schools as part of our "heritage". When I was in Grade 4, I went to the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton. Beforehand, reams of colouring sheets and puzzles were passed around the class. I still have some of them, of My Friend The Cowboy who has nothing better to do than bully animals. I had misgivings, but everyone promised me that I would have a "fun" time. I was sick and miserable watching calves being tripped, and horses kicking. One calf died of a broken neck, and there was a certain morbidness to the way it was dragged out of the ring by it's hind legs, as if, "Them's the breaks".

I hope people realize that rodeos are not "fun". Beautiful and intelligent companion animals such as horses do not deserve to be treated in this manner, that the violence toward animals and women is very real and not something to be taken lightly.

HORSEAID