It oughta be a riot at the Greeley Stampede

One of the great small rodeos in America is the Independence Day Stampede in Greeley, Colorado. It is a big time, outdoor rodeo, accompanied by community festivals, a parade, carnival and big name entertainment.

Tomorrow night, the over-the-hill, has-been rock band Poison, is due to perform. The drummer in the band, Rick Rockett, has suddenly claimed he did not know that the Stampede includes a rodeo, and that he is opposed to rodeo because it is cruel to animals. As part of a band on the downhill side, bucks are triumphing over principle, however, as he will perform anyway.

Rockett is due to attempt to deliver an anti-rodeo screed during the performance, which ought to be a gas in Greeley, Colorado--which could be the red neck capital of the state. We can only hope that he is merely booed off the stage, rather than something even worse happening.

It has gotton so bad since Rockett went off, that the lead singer in the band, Bret Michael, has had to point out that he disagrees vehemently with Rockett and said "we'll make up for it by playing one hell of a concert."

Rodeo, which merely emulates what goes on at farms and ranches everyday, has cowtowed to the animal rights crowd, and drastically changed (some purists say ruined) the treatment of animals. Nonetheless, there are now organized professional protestors who appear at virtually every rodeo to garner their share of press publicity.

They've been at Denver's National Western rodeo the last few years, at Cheyenne Frontier Days, in Houston, Ft. Worth, Calgary or any other rodeo you want to name. That's their right under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that we're celebrating on this July 4 holiday.

Perhaps its time to do as the owner of Denver restaurant J.P. McGill's has done. When confronted by animal rights activists who objected to his lobster tank, where patrons pay $2 to run a mechanical arm and pick out their lobster for dinner out of the tank, he told them where to go. He is not taking out the tank, and says someone needs to take a stand or we'll all get run over.

Here, Here!