A CLOSER LOOK -- Cowboy culture or just cruelty?

Andrew Glazer

The calloused leather saddles, dust-dyed cowboy hats and

teeth-gnashing, barrel-backed bucking broncos of the annual rodeo are

relics of the disappearing Wild West.

Sprawling cattle ranches, wide-open fields of golden grass and vast

blue sky in Orange County have been covered by tangles of asphalt

freeways, pea soup smog and tracts of terra-cotta roofed homes. Broncos

no longer buck; they cruise on four-wheel drive.

But steely-eyed Cotton Rosser, 72, set back the clocks 60 years when

he and his Flying U Rodeo Co. rollicked the Orange County arena.

“Rodeo is one of the only true American sports other than baseball,

football and basketball,” said Rosser, a cowboy whose thumb was lopped

off by a steer’s horn in one rodeo event and whose legs were broken in

another. “The sport hasn’t changed much at all. It’s still man against

beast.”

Which is precisely what has outraged animal rights activists. They say

rodeos -- used in the 1860s to showcase ranchers’ roping and riding

abilities -- are now strictly a celebration of animal cruelty.

“They way they’re conducted today results in injuries, pain, fear and

harassment to the animals,” said Eric Sakach, director of the West Coast

regional office of the U.S. Humane Society. “But audiences think of them

as clean family entertainment.”

Rosser, who grew up riding horses in Long Beach, said he loves his

animals.

“The animal rights guys don’t realize we are the protectors and

saviors of the animals,” Rosser said, pulling a piece of hay from a bale

as green as a dollar bill. “You know what they normally do to mean bulls?

I’ll give you a hint. I ate one this morning at McDonald’s.”

Instead, he said he provides his animals with a relatively cushy life.

“See how fat these horses are,” Rosser said, pointing to a

chesnut-colored bronco’s bulging belly with his index finger. “This bale

of hay here was $150. And our animals get to travel. They’ve been to the

Cow Palace in San Francisco, for instance.”

He added that his horses only spend a total of eight minutes in the

ring each week and enjoy frequent vacations.

But animal rights groups say the animals are subject to brutal

conditions. Rodeo companies almost always transport bulls and horses in

trailers that are too small for them, Sakach said.

And cowboys, who want to put on a good show, often jolt bulls and

broncos with an electric cattle prod before their rides, he said.

Although the so-called “hot shots” are illegal in most rodeos, Sakach

said the rule is a tough one to enforce.

“It’s one way of getting a good ride and improving the rider’s score,”

he said.

Troy “The Wild Child” Lerwill, 33 -- the rodeo’s soft-spoken

motorcycle jumper and bullfighter -- said cowboys from the Flying U

Rodeo, based in Marysville, don’t use “hot shots.”

But he doesn’t deny that some cowboys do.

“There are a few bad apples in every bunch,” he said. “It only takes a

few of them to give us a bad name. But some horses and bulls just like to

buck.”

Rosser said it will be a long time before the public loses its

fascination with all things cowboy.

“Everyone wants to be one,” he said. “There might not be a lot of

money in this sport. But who doesn’t want to take the challenge of

getting on a wild bull and riding him?”