Raging Bulls
Jan. 10, 2007— -- New Yorkers know a lot about bull. So it makes a certain amount of sense that the Professional Bull Riders circuit kicked off its 2007 season at Madison Square Garden last weekend with an invitational event that pitted the country's best riders against one another.
To drum up publicity, a few days before the big event, the PBR tricked out five New York taxi cabs to look like bulls -- replete with horns and fake fur. To encourage New Yorkers to actually be seen riding in them, the fares were free.
But New York cabbies are surrounded by metal, dashboard and pleather when they risk their lives in the city's notorious traffic. Bull riders have more modest accoutrements when they hit the ring: helmets, mouth guards, the occasional neck brace and, most recently, vests made from Kevlar, the bulletproof cloth.
Once they're suited up, the riders try to cling to the backs of 1500-pound bucking broncos for eight whole seconds. Not impressed? Think again.
Imagine sliding onto the powerful, angry bull and making sure your hand is tied tightly enough to keep from being thrown. You nod, the gate opens and all hell breaks loose. The idea is to hold tight, with only that one hand, for the eight longest seconds of your life -- and to do it with flair.
Best case scenario, the rider goes the distance, jumps off and runs for his life. On the flipside: a potentially injurious encounter with a supercharged set of horns and hooves, backed by nearly a ton of prime U.S. beef.
Sometimes You're the Beef, Sometimes You're the Burger
Bull riding is not for the faint of heart, which is why in recent years the Adrenalin-charged sport has become so popular that it's sometimes referred to as the next NASCAR. And for a good reason: "We've modeled ourselves after NASCAR," admits Cody Lambert, the vice president and livestock director of Professional Bull Riders, Inc.
And why not? The two sports have so much in common. They both feature people willing to risk their lives for the entertainment of others, they both generate millions of dollars and both are growing at an exponential rate.
Professional Bull Riders, Inc. was founded in 1992 by a group of riders trying to make bull riding, the most popular event in traditional rodeo, into a stand-alone sport. Today, more than 700 riders from all over the world hold PBR memberships.
When their first world champion was crowned in 1994, the tour consisted of eight events offering a combined $250,000 in prize money. This year the prize money is worth $10 million and the PBR will land at major venues across the country. They estimate 100 million viewers will tune in to the televised events, many of which are featured on the Versus cable channel. Numbers like these are why the good ol' boys at NASCAR keep a sharp eye on their rearview mirrors.
You can now catch televised bull riding just about every week, somewhere on your dial. Compare that to just a few years ago, when bull riding was only one event in the full rodeo.
Bred to Be a Bucking Bull
The bulls themselves have undergone a dramatic transition over the years as well. If bull riding is like NASCAR, then the riders are the drivers and the bulls are the cars -- fine-tuned, super-fast, super-strong vehicles, tweaked to run just below the red line.
Today's bucking bulls are genetically developed, selectively bread super-animals, so crucial to the sport that they, like their riders, are called "athletes." When it comes to bulls, the bigger and badder, the better. Only the largest, strongest and orneriest ones are chosen for the serious events and they are also the only ones who are used as breeding stock.
Most of the events -- which are sponsored by Ford and called the Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) events -- feature an estimated 75 bulls that are supplied by up to six different PBR stock contractors. Commonly tipping the scale at 1500 pounds or more, the modern bucking bull is a thoroughbred through and through.
They sell for tens of thousands of dollars and according to Lambert, who is responsible for choosing the bulls used in PBR Special Events, the animals get first class treatment. "Most people do it for the love of the sport and love of the animals. These bulls are treated well and are so valuable that it would be foolish to treat them poorly."
Animal rights advocates disagree, saying the beasts are, at the very least, afraid, and that inhumane methods are used to get them to buck. PETA, the world's largest animal rights group, is explicitly opposed to the sport, charging that "using animals in the name of 'entertainment' is inexcusable."
PETA spokesman Colleen O'Brien claims the bulls "suffer extensive physical trauma and psychological terror." PETA created a Web site, bucktherodeo.com, where they charge that bull riding "takes normally docile animals and provokes them into unnaturally aggressive and fearful behavior. Bulls are tormented in the chutes prior to release into the ring, often by having their tails twisted and raked against the bars or being shocked with an electric prod to provoke them into fleeing the chute" once it is opened.
For their part, the PBR has a Web page of their own that details the treatment of their animals (pbrnow.com/about/sportinfo/bulls.cfm). They say the bulls jump because that's what they are bred to do.
"The success of bucking bull breeding programs across North America has proven that genetics is the most prevalent factor in determining a bull's desire and ability to buck. For years, finding a good bucking bull among a herd of common sale barn bovines was frustrating," the Web site says. "A bull will only buck if he possesses the innate desire and natural instinct to do so. That instinct is being pinpointed through genetics and the science of breeding great bucking bulls has made the business of owning bucking bulls one that requires money and patience rather than sheer luck."
The bulls that were camping out backstage at Madison Square Garden last weekend had what looked to be comfortable accommodations -- a layer of dirt and clean hay to rest in, as well as plenty of food and water. The animals did not appear agitated, at least until it was their turn in to approach the ring. At this point, the bulls are roused from their holding pens and led into a series of narrow chutes, eventually landing in the chute adjacent to the ring, where they are boarded by the rider.
This process causes the bull visible discomfort as a braided rope is fastened tight around their mid-section; however, it looks no more distressing than a horse being saddled. Then, it's about eight to 10 seconds of pure mayhem; the gate swings open, the bull bucks, whirls and empties his sinuses -- maybe he gets a chance to give a little business to the guy who dared to mount him -- then it's back to the paddock.
There was no sign of any electric cattle prods or tails being twisted and the animals looked no worse for wear than those at a residing at a petting zoo, albeit, a petting zoo for daredeveils. Not exactly the open range, but certainly not the butcher's block either.