Editor:
My visceral reactions to the story about two horses with broken legs after participating in the “Outlaw Rodeo” were first rage and then grief. When will the people of Humboldt County and the officials of Humboldt County (the so-called overseers of county-owned property like the Humboldt County Fairgrounds) have had their fill of torturing and killing horses at the fair? Since our county revenues subsidize the Humboldt County Fair, should we not expect, at the least, a positive cultural experience? Events endangering animals such as an “outlaw rodeo” are a polar opposite of a cultural benefit. (See the Los Angeles Times article entitled “California Rodeo Animals Face Violent and Deadly casualties: Broken backs, legs and skulls,” Susanne Rust, Dec. 7, 2022.)
I hope and believe that the people of Humboldt County who are willing and complicit in using horses for dangerous spectacle (have you seen the condition of the track and horse facilities there?) are a minority. The trouble is that this minority apparently is in charge of things. What could possibly go wrong with an event involving horses ridiculously entitled “outlaw rodeo?” Have these organizers of such an event learned nothing in 100 years? Even the movie industry gave up endangering animals almost 50 years ago.
Contact your county supervisor and make your thoughts and feelings known. Help stop the misuse and endangerment of horses and other animals on the Humboldt County Fairgrounds. Tell your county supervisor to work on a plan to require that the Fair Board meet much higher standards for any events involving animals.
Karen Burkhardt, Eureka
This article appears in Corkscrew Trees and a Crooked Trail.
