Julie Stauffer

I truly do realize that there are unethical trainers out there and I realize
that demonstrators at circuses are working against those; however, it does
some unreasonable to paint all training with the same brush.

We have show animals. Many people who show animals are cruel to them.
Examples commonly used in 4-H goat programs: tying a goat with his head
pulled as high as possible for at least an hour per day, keeping goats in
small pens, chasing goats with dogs or 4-wheelers to "exercise" them,
overloading the animals with vaccinations and wormers rather than providing
a semi-natural habitat for them, overloading them with grain to increase
weight which leads to medical problems.

We don't treat our animals that way. Ours are treated as humanely and
respectfully as possible. We use attention and relationships with our
animals to train them. We would not want to be lumped in with people who
mistreat their animals simply because we train and show animals.

I suspect that in most areas of animal showmanship there are "bronc busters"
and there are "horse whisperers".

Julie