Rodeos can have harmful effects on children

I recently became aware that a rodeo event billed as the Battle by the River (Wild Horse Productions, LLC/ Sandburr Rodeo Productions, Inc.) is scheduled to appear on Jan. 13 and 14 at the Xtream Arena in Coralville. The rodeo is portrayed as a family and kid-friendly event, with Saturday designated as “Kids’ Day,” which features a preshow expressly for kids.

As a career educator, I want to convey my deep objection to the city of Coralville’s support of this rodeo. While many people oppose the animal cruelty endemic to rodeos (and I am one of those people), I want to add a concern that is not often considered, namely rodeo’s negative effect on the emotional and moral development of children and young people.

Rodeos are not, as they are widely viewed, a form of “good, clean fun.” To the contrary, they are inherently cruel, primitive and violent events. In the case of calf roping, the animals are jabbed with electric prods and tormented into a frenzy of panic in the holding chutes and then roped at top speeds. Many are injured, maimed and even killed, especially in practice routines that take place before the public event. Bull riding events are no less brutal. The Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association’s website reports that, “[I]n order to enhance the bull's performance, cattle prods are often used repeatedly to shock the bulls as they stand trapped in the bucking chute. Bucking straps and spurs can cause the bull to buck beyond his normal capacity and his legs or back may thus be broken.”

At these events, children are essentially being taught that animals don’t have feelings, or that even if they do it doesn’t matter. Treating them in ways that control, distress, or even harm them is not only perfectly acceptable but fun. And it is not only acceptable, but applauded by adults.

But children are more perceptive than adults often give them credit for being. Simultaneously, it does not escape their perception that rodeo animals are frightened, stressed and in pain. It also does not escape their notice that these dominated animals are being used in ways that render them powerless for the purpose of “entertainment.” A large body of conclusive research confirms that when children participate in or watch adult sanctioned cruelty to animals, an automatic process of desensitization occurs to protect them from the trauma of what they are witnessing. The ultimate effect is that children’s emotional and moral development is blunted by repressing what would otherwise be a naturally evolving sense of empathy, compassion and caring for others. This developmental impairment is why, since the 1970s, The Humane Society of the United States has expressed serious concerns about the psychologically damaging effect of rodeos on children. Likewise, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has issued a policy statement opposing children’s rodeo events for this reason.

Studies have also consistently demonstrated that children and young people learn cruel and callous behavior from those around them, and that witnessing and participating in animal abuse often precedes cruel, callous, and even violent behavior toward their fellow humans. It is therefore not surprising that a number of school shooters had a history of cruelty to animals.

We are living in an era where public violence is becoming disturbingly commonplace. Why would we support events such as rodeos that result in another generation of citizens being desensitized to the consequences of such behavior?

Deborah Gallagher lives in Iowa City