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SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness
SHARK
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Cowboys or Spin Doctors?PRCA Commissioners, Past and Present, Show Little Western CultureThe Financial Woes of the PRCAThree More PRCA YuppiesInside the PRCA
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The Financial Woes of the PRCAFor the past few years the PRCA has bragged about the increasing amount of television exposure its rodeos were receiving, mainly on the ESPN and OLN networks. This was because, according to the PRCA, rodeo was in a breakout faze and was about to become the most popular sport in America and beyond. There was, however, a rather substantial detail omitted regarding all that television exposure. The PRCA was paying for all of it! Basically, televised rodeos are nothing more than infomercials, and extremely inaccurate portrayals at that. For instance, the PRCA edits out animal injuries and deaths. You won't see animals being beaten, or having their tails twisted, pulled and raked over fence rails in televised rodeos. You won't see animals being shocked with thousands of volts of painful electricity to make them run and buck to escape their pain and torment. What the public sees in televised PRCA rodeos is a highly sanitized version of what really happens. Paying for ever-increasing amounts of television time, in addition to increasing public scrutiny resulting in lost corporate sponsorships, has resulted in the PRCA losing lots of money. This has forced some rodeos, including a big one held annually in Las Vegas, to be discontinued. It forced the temporary closing of the PRCA's Hall of Fame, and we won't be surprised if this boring and poorly attended exhibit of highly glossed rodeo artifacts and highly censored rodeo movies closes again before too long. Even the PRCA propaganda princess (given the formal title of "humane coordinator") was let go, and reclassified a short time later as a "consultant." It should be mentioned that the humane coordinator's job is actually to divert attention from humane issues, not to promote the humane treatment of PRCA animal victims! Fake Sport or Real Sport?In order to keep the corporate sponsorship money flowing, the PRCA desperately attempts to portray rodeo as a legitimate sport. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. What other sport will hold some of its events at secret locations and actively discourage attendance as the PRCA does with steer roping? Amazingly, spectators at steer busting events are harassed and questioned as to how they found out about the event and why they are there! Televised rodeo broadcasts censor portions of certain events. For instance, the camera always pans away from the calf at the moment of impact when its neck is snapped back by the contestant's rope. Additionally, humane violations, injuries and deaths are edited out. The PRCA discourage cameras. This is odd behavior for a "sport." Can you imagine going to a ballgame and having your camera confiscated? Of course not, but a real sport doesn't have anything to hide. The PRCA says it has 60 humane rules and that humane violators are fined. But in typical PRCA fashion, those records are secret. Can you imagine a real sport behaving this way? What if the NFL kept its penalties secret? It would certainly speed up the game! The PRCA closes, then re-opens its "Hall of Fame."In early 2005, the PRCA closed its Hall of Fame because it was losing money. On April 9, 2005, the Hall reopened after the PRCA apparently begged enough money from its sponsors. It was also given a $50,000 donation from a competing rodeo association. Sounds like welfare, doesn't it? |
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