The Google Effect

This morning I did a search on Goggle for Ty Murray, a great rodeo rider and a man who often seems to be labeled the "King of Cowboys". I ran the search mostly because Ty and I both grew up in Phoenix and I was curious to see where he had gone to school and if he had ever competed out where I lived, south of Cashion.

But that's not what I'm writing about. As I was exploring the various links Google coughed up, I found one that led to a website operated by a group opposed to animal abuse and cruelty, and that in turn led to this group's allegations of massive, slope-browed, knuckle-dragging, gibbering cruelty at rodeos.

That's the Google Effect. You look for one thing, and end up somewhere entirely different.

I'm not here to defend Ty Murray, and I'm sure he neither wants nor needs me to even try. Nor am I here to defend rodeo in general, as it is my general policy to not go out of my way to defend any organization that has its own lawyers and PR firm.

But come on - when looking at professional bull riding, does the phrase "cruelty to animals" even mean anything? People should be more worried about "cruelty to cowboys". Just ask Valdiron de la Oliveira (among a great many others), or consult this link:

http://www.health.state.ok.us/Program/injury/updates/bullcns.html

There are legitimate cases of animal cruelty, no doubt, and things like canned hunts and dog-fights are utterly reprehensible. But if putting a 150-pound cowboy on the back of a 2000-pound bull qualifies as cruelty, then having to put up with self-righteous vegetarian propaganda also qualifies as cruelty.

The anti-cruelty group apparently invites cowboys to be zapped by cattle prods, and notes with snooty self-righteousness that none of the cowboys ever take them up on that offer. They should have been around when I was a teenager, because I'd estimate we spent at least five percent of our time chasing each other around with the cattle prod (we only had one, and the Holder of the Prod was king). Is the cattle prod unpleasant? Sure - and it'll motivate you to move along, no question about that. But I'd still rather take a zap from a cattle prod than eat asparagus, for whatever that's worth to you.