A nine-year old bucking horse named Duke was electrically shocked out of the chute and died in front of a grandstand packed with spectators at the 2013 Cowtown Rodeo in New Jersey.
Duke dies a needless and cruel death as public spectacle.
In a post in Psychology Today, Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, comments on Duke’s death and calls for a ban on rodeos as “entertainment.”
- The animal advocacy group
- has cited examples of this practice at several rodeos.
Clear evidence of the use of electric prods, which is apparently widespread throughout the sport, can be seen in the photo below taken last month by a woman at a rodeo in Reno.
Reno rodeo. Man holds a horse’s tail to the side while another man sticks a prod in the horse’s anus. (Photo: Ellie Lopez-Bowlan)
Type of electric prod used on Duke.
Reno Rodeo president John Tipton denied shocking devices were used.
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