January 6, 2007
Hold Onto Your Saddles, Bull Riding is at The Garden
No, no. That smell of shit coming from The Garden isn't the Knicks. After all, they have improved ever so slightly. It's actual bull feces because Professional Bull Riding's Versus Invitational is here. If you liked Luke Perry in 8 Seconds, this is the event for you. The two-day event will open PBR's 2007 season with competitions tonight at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m..
To promote this weekend's events, the PBR was giving free bull taxi rides during the week. And if you're like Gothamist and don't know much about bull riding, Wikipedia has a nice page on points and scoring.
If watching bull riding isn't enough fun for you, you can also meet some of the riders Saturday night at The Garden's Terrace Room in a free event they're calling Night Club PBR. We can't think of a better place to spend a Saturday night.
Shockingly, there are plenty of good seats still available for the event on Saturday and Sunday.
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Free bull taxi rides = awesome.
Came across one of these cabs at Union Square, and folks either didn't believe it was free, or were intimidated (I'm not sure why).
So I went up with my friend, got in the cab (the cabbie even had a cowboy hat on, way to get into the spirit) and took it up to 76th Street.
More events should do that sort of thing.
Too bad NYC's forward thinking, fair-minded, and generally humane inclinations don't extend to rodeo animals. When it comes to NYC's relationship with the Rodeo Mafia, the good old boy network is as strong as in the most unenlightened backwaters.
State law does not prohibit the use of unlined flank straps. State law does not require a vet on site at rodeo events. The only issue the state penal code takes a stand on is the use of electric shock devices used to make the animals "perform," and even then the use of such devices is prohibited only while the animals are in the holding chutes.
With only this one protection for rodeo animals, you would expect it to be taken seriously. Not so! Thanks to a strong and assertive Rodeo Mafia and corrupt, weak-willed law enforcement, even this meager protection fails the animals every time. In rodeo after rodeo animals are shocked in holding chutes with hand-held cattle prods, delivering between 5,000 and 6,000 volts of electricity. The pain and fear induced by this cruel treatment forces them to buck as wildly as possible for maximum entertainment, often to the point of injury and sometimes death.
This blatant criminal activity has been captured on videotape many times by animal advocates working undercover who have turned the evidence over to the authorities. How many convictions have resulted? Zip.
go to SHARK for full article