Death of rodeo steer was disgusting

To the editor:

I attended my first rodeo event Sunday at the Show Me Center. Quite frankly, I have never been more offended in my life.

My first impression of the steer wrestling event was that it looked dangerous to the animal. I couldn't have been more correct. The third steer to leave the gate was wrestled down and had its neck broken right there in front of everyone. All of the cowboys immediately made a circle around the mortally injured animal so the crowd could not see what was happening. They did not do such a good job, because we could see the steer's last twitches right before it quit moving all together.

The whole time this is going on, the announcer and the rodeo clown were making light of the situation and telling the crowd that the only thing that was wrong was that the steer twisted a horn. Come on. How stupid do these people think we are? To make the whole thing even more disgusting, they left the dead steer on display on the parking lot for all of the spectators to see.

This is the most offensive and cruel thing I have ever seen in all my years. Is there not something that could be done about this? I am sure that the Missourian, the U.S. Army, Dodge and some of the other big sponsors of this event won't approve of this behavior -- at least I hope not.

CRAIG WOOD, Farmington, Mo.