Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: Aggielife

Will Lloyd - The Battalion

Every year, for three weeks in March, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR), the second largest festival in the nation, turns the Reliant Center into an agriculture heaven. Nearly anyone from Houston can describe the impact of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, as it brings famous performers, livestock and a nationally famous rodeo to H-town year after year.

"I have been going to HLSR since I was little bitty," said Matt Anderson, a freshman agricultural science major. "My family goes to the performances and the rodeo but we mainly go to look at the livestock. I have been showing cattle there since I was a freshman in high school. It's fun to go to the concerts and have fun, but showing is a lot of work, and it's a lot more fun than anything else."

As an intern with Texas A&M's ag science department, Anderson will attend several activities at the HLSR over Spring Break as an Aggie representative, helping Junior participants weigh and classify their animals as well as guiding them in the show rings.

But it is not only Texans or Aggies who have a presence at HLSR. Houston has become an international spotlight, drawing interested buyers from around the globe.

"Houston is the largest livestock show and rodeo in Texas and is an internationally known show," Anderson said. "It attracts people from all over the world. Houston is the granddaddy of them all. There is a livestock show in Louisville and Denver, but Houston is the biggest. We market a lot of our cattle to South America, so it's a time to take your best cattle, the best of the best, and show them off at HLSR."

For some students however, the rodeo aspect is viewed with much chagrin.

"I really think they should stop rodeos," said Sarah O'Day, a freshman biomedical science major. "The animals don't have an opinion. They can't say they don't want to participate. In this day and age, the participants try to make the animals seem so wild when the animals' responses are actually being provoked. A lot of the animals are aggravated with electric prodders in order to get them to buck or run faster. I have heard stories about animals that run out of the shoots so fast that they run into walls or fences and injure themselves."

As a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA, O'Day is concerned about animal safety. As a main attraction of the HLSR, Rodeo Houston is the largest in the world. Although the rodeo has implemented numerous safety measures for the animals, O'Day said many of the events are unethical. The bucking straps used to get horses and bulls to "buck" and the calf roping event are two of O'Day's largest concerns.

Continued...

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