Yeah, you really get the sense that if it was a fair footing for both species, humans would enjoy it much less. We're all animals in the fundamental sense of the word, what "rights" we deem fit to give to members of our own species, versus other species, are arbitrary. I have to admit, rodeos (and now pigwrestling, thanks roysexton) has been in the back of my mind for a while now, and I suppose they're all in a similar vein to circuses; the idea that animals deserve to be exploited for entertainment certainly seems distasteful, but I'm still not sure if I would go as far to say that all species deserve a inalienable right to be free from exploitation by humans.

Animals being kept and used in captivity is a difficult issue to parse from the broad continuum of situations: my pet dog, which lives better than some humans do; a dolphin or elephant kept in captivity by the professional staff of a multi-million dollar amusement park or nature reserve, an animal that is kept safe and healthy, perhaps mentally stimulated, but still prevented from having free agency; a pig used in pigwrestling spectacles, bruised and stressed, but unslaughtered and hopefully returned to a family farm that raises them humanely; or a factory-farm chicken, or a primate used in some cruel laboratory tests, held and used with minimal concern for the animal's well-being.