Friday, January 9, 2015

Sorry PETA: "Cowboy Monkey Rodeos Exist and They Are Everything You Want Them To Be"

From Modern Farmer:
Whiplash is a 22-year-old rodeo star, as famous as Buffalo Bill or Will Rogers in certain circles. He’s appeared in commercials and charmed hosts on Good Morning America and The Today Show. It’s not hard for him to win people over: Whiplash is a white-haired Capuchin monkey and the most well-known rider in the cowboy monkey rodeo, an odd and adorable sideshow that has been around in the country for since the 1930s.

Whiplash’s steed is a border collie, which he rides around a ring at speeds up to 30 m.p.h. rounding up sheep, to the amusement of the crowd. He and the country’s other cowboy monkey rodeo riders, the group act Team Ghost Riders, are a funny and delightfully surreal sight in their cowboy hats, Western shirts, and chaps, sitting straight up on their dogs and appearing to steer towards the sheep (though, really, the border collies are more or less doing the work)....MORE