Animal Activist vs. Bull Riding

            On November 3, 2007 bull riders, fans, and friends sat in despair as we watched a great young man’s life end right before our eyes. Zach Clinton was a good bull rider by anybody’s standards but, he may have been a little miss matched on this night. Zack started a good ride but, by about mid way through the ride he ended up under the bull as its hide hooves came down right on his chest. Zach stopped breathing before the ambulance arrived and was pronounced dead before he made it to the hospital.

            People might wonder how this possible relates to animal activist groups considering; activist groups wish to see all rodeo sports including bull riding banned. What people fail to realize is that these groups will pick on rodeo associations from the largest associations such as the PBR or PRCA on down to the smallest association like high school rodeo associations. For the larger associations it’s not as hard to fight back because, they have the funding to higher expensive lawyers to discredit the propaganda that these groups wish to spew online or in court. Smaller or newer associations normally will not have the man power or funding to fight off the activist groups, there for will occasionally be shut down.

            With different associations there is a different level of competition. A father does not just throw his tee ball player in to a high school baseball game and say, “Go hit a home run,” there is a process of honing your skill; the same is for rodeo. Participants start by matching up with animals that are of the same skill level and build their skills till they graduate to the next level. If one of the steps it taken out of the growing process then there is a miss match and accidents can happen, just like in the case of my friend Zach.

            I hope with this that I can bring some light to this sort of situation. In Zach case he would have most likely still of chose to rodeo at the level he was at. Zach was always one to test himself with strong competition. So competitors though would love to have another babe step before moving up to a large association but, with the pressure from animal activist groups this is not always possible. I believe that if this animal rights activist groups can band together to destroy the rodeo way of life then, we as rodeo participants and fans need to band together and at no matter what level of rodeo the fight for survival is at we need to be there for each other.