Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowperson
I agree with the premise that its pretty much inevitable rodeo will die at some point, probably within the next 100 years or maybe sooner. But die it will.
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My first thought on this was 'no way', but it does raise an interesting question: what would it take for the rodeo to cease to exist? (This post isn't saying the rodeo should or shouldn't die out... for what it's worth, the rodeo is my favorite part of the Stampede).
If it did die out, it would be from the result of either market forces or legislation. Both of those are different versions of public pressure.
On the legislative side, banning rodeo-type events would be seen as an attack on rural values and lifestyle, even though in Calgary's case it's all big-business. The current voter demographics make any attempt to ban the rodeo at either a municipal, provincial, or federal level complete political suicide. But a massive shift toward urbanization over the next 100 years (and corresponding adjustment of seat allocation) would continually diminish the rural voting block. It's not ridiculous to think that animal rights could become a politically significant issue within the next 100 years.
But the real issue with animal rights, as a movement, is that unless you're vegan, it's difficult to avoid any sort of hypocrisy. The general sense of morality regarding animal rights condemns only what's convenient to condemn. Most people are pretty okay with dogs and cats as pets, so dogs and cats get relatively extensive rights. Most people enjoy eating meat, so cattle and pigs and chicken have relatively minimal rights. Extending significant rights to cattle and pigs becomes very inconvenient to our current food supply (both from a consumer and corporate perspective). If every type of animal meat tasted like boiled liver and had little nutritional value, we probably would have banned meat consumption a couple decades ago on 'moral grounds'. But it doesn't. For the most part, it's delicious! I don't want to really think about the whole animal rights question if it affects my bacon supply.
I don't think that animal rights becomes a serious motivating issue unless there's massive upheaval to the current food supply system. If we had Star Trek replicators (very unlikely, even in 100 years) or affordable and delicious test-tube-grown meat (more likely, though unlikely to ever be economical compared to current meat production), you'd probably see a big shift; but apart from that science fiction, what would it take? Will the number of vegetarians and vegans continue to grow at the current rate, or will they peak before ever becoming politically significant in numbers?
Or does impetus for change come from within the industry itself? If attitudes against the rodeo grow, the meat industry may decide it's advantageous to get the rodeo out of sight to avoid turning people getting into too much of a discussion about meat production. (It's like horse meat production in Canada... it keeps as low a profile as possible because they know that the idea is distasteful to average Canadians.) Right now, the rodeo helps the meat industry by fueling romances of a meat production industry very different from the factory farm realities, but what happens when society sours on that romance?
Or am I putting too much into a holistic view of animal rights? Is it possible that events like rodeos could be banned without first going through a massive discussion and reorganization of animal rights in our society?
Jeez, that's a depressing topic. Maybe I'd feel better if I go cook up some bacon for supper.