Bucking Bronc, Lewiston, Utah, 1993

"The question is simple: Is it civilized to make sport of animals' fear? Maybe not. But rodeo is not very civilized in general. As a throwback to the frontier, it's close to the moral equivalent of war in a negative as well as a positive way: All the drama and try of it depends on an inevitable—and unfair—cost to both the humans and the animals. There is no way to untie that knot."

Text from "Rodeos: Behind the Chutes," September 1999, National Geographic magazine

摄影者：James P. Blair

驯马牛仔，路易斯顿，犹他州，1993

问题很简单：利用动物的恐惧发展而来的体育运动是否文明？答案可能是否定的。马术竞技和一般的体育运动相比并不是很文明。犹如在尖端领域的大倒退，对马术竞技问题的讨论更接近于对战争在道德层面的否定：所有的激情与尝试都不可避免的——甚至是不公平的——要人类和动物付出代价。这是无法解开的结。