Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ridiculous Item of the Day: Animals in Bullfighting Being Tested for Performance Enhancing Drugs

It takes Big Bucks an average of 3.64 seconds to throw a cowboy off his back. And he keeps getting better. Last season, the 7-year-old, 1,350-pound bull shaved his time down to 3.48 seconds; this month, he trotted out of Madison Square Garden as the top-ranked bull in the 2008 Versus Invitational, the opening event in bull riding's major leagues.But these days, with steroid scandals clouding many top sports, doubts waft like sawdust in the bull arena too, and Big Bucks finds himself facing a question about what makes him a winner: Is it the Mexican fighting bull in him, the Brahman influence, his Texas upbringing -- or something else? Big Bucks hasn't ducked the question -- instead submitting to a needle-wielding veterinarian and making history in the process as the first bucking bull to be tested for anabolic steroids under the Professional Bull Riders' new plan to keep the sport clean. Dogged by internal rumblings that bull owners seek an advantage in the arena by injecting the massive creatures with steroids, the association recently decided it was time to ferret out the truth. A number of people in the industry speculate that steroids were used on competitive bulls in the past (at least one owner acknowledges having done so) but that the practice fell out of favor as owners realized they were trading short-term gains for long-term losses.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rodeo27jan27,0,6033105.story

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