The question is simple: Is it civilized to make sport of animals fear? Maybe not. But rodeo is not very civilized in general. As a throwback to the frontier, it's close to the moral equivalent of war in a negative as well as a positive way: All the drama and try of it depends on an inevitable-and unfair-cost to both humans and animals. There is no way to untie that knot.

Is it as Tallman says? Does rodeo represent where we came from and what we are? Well, maybe. But if so, maybe that's not so great. This sport is a heap of contradictions. It claims to be moral, religious, conservative, but many of its boys run around cursing, picking up and discarding girls, getting drunk. It values freedom, but it's tied to the apron strings on sponsors like alcohol and tobacco. It glorifies youth and vigor, but it shatters them both. It is sentimental about its link with nature, its animals, but it's tough on them. Is that America?

--NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SEPTEMBER 1999