In the letter, “Rodeos do nothing but harm animals” (SN, 2/22), it was said that animals are cruelly provoked to buck and act wild. As a fan of Professional Bull Riders Inc., I can say this is not entirely true.

The specially bred bulls of the PBR are treated with the same respect as a prize show horse. Many of the bulls are worth as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Do you think anyone with that kind of money on one head would want to hurt or damage the bull? I think not.

As far as torture is concerned, the bulls go through an absolute maximum of three hours worth of torture a year. That is including the flanking rope, gate time, riding time and number of rides.

It’s true that some of them may suffer a little in traveling, but bulls are delivered to the arena at least 24 hours before a show to relax, feed and rest before riding the next day.

That means for approximately seven to 10 days out of 365, the bulls go through “torture,” while the rest of the time they are put out to pasture to do whatever their little hearts desire.

The flanking ropes aren’t tied on as tight as you might think. Nor are they on for very long.

They are put on the bull just before it enters the gate and are taken off immediately afterwards.

I know this is only one part of what a rodeo is, and like all things, there are a few rodeos and amateur bull-riding groups that really do torture their animals.

But to say all rodeos are bad is like saying the human race is all good. It’s just a bunch of bull.

Stacey Bayne
pre-vet freshman