Abide This Remnant Of Old West Spirit Missing The Mark Far More Horses Are Sent To Pet Food Factories.

When Roberta Fancher Coon died this summer, at 78, her obituary noted she was the third queen of the Omak Stampede.

The mention was a telling reminder about the community-building tradition that has developed around the rodeo, downhill horse race and related festivities staged every August in the small north-central Washington town of Omak. More than 400 volunteers out of a town of about 4,000 people turn out each year to help pull together the event.

The spirit that propels the Omak Stampede is a good example of what is best about small-town life.

Protests against the Omak Stampede and Suicide Race are a bad example of big-city interference into small-town sensibilities.

A pushy Puget Sound-based organization known as the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) continues to try to marginalize the Omak Stampede and Suicide Race. PAWS has undercut public support for the Omak event in the Seattle area, harassed its commercial supporters and has even gone to court.

All this, over a race where riders on horseback scoot down a 30-degree hillside, splash across a river and collect a trophy.

The attempt to demonize this race is unfair to Omak and misses the mark as a viable animal rights issue. Far more horses are sent to pet food factories to become tasty morsels for city people’s dogs than have ever met their end at the suicide races.

The race down the steep hillside isn’t without risk. One estimate is that three horses in the last 12 years have suffered injuries that led to their being destroyed. Hundreds of other other horses haven’t been injured.

The race has become a huge spectator event and an important rite of passage for dozens of Colville Indian boys and young men.

Context is important to remember, when trying to distinguish activities that need to be protested as inhumane from activities that need to be understood for their larger purpose.

The suicide race poses no threat to the general population, or horses, or to humanity.

Save the whales. Save the tigers. Save the rain forest and save the seas.

Leave the Omak Stampede alone.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Cruel event headed for the last roundup

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = Chris Peck For the editorial board