Corner Post Editorial
If you ain't cheating, then you ain't competing ... or are you?
by Katie Maupin, posted Nov. 14, 2007
Anyone who has shown livestock has come into contact with people who break the rules or at least bend them a little bit. And most have probably heard the phrase, “If you ain’t cheating, then you ain’t competing, and if you ain’t winning, then you just ain’t cheating hard enough.”
Numerous times I have been frustrated, as people who obviously are not acting ethically have won class after class. In one instance, I was exhibiting my May heifer in the summer-born class against an animal who had the tips of its ears frozen off as a calf. And I would venture to say that unless that heifer was calved in Antarctica, it was really not a summer-born entry.
As a livestock exhibitor, it is frustrating to place second to people who change the age of their animals or perhaps do something else to deceive the judge. It is easy to say this should be stopped and that people should just play by the rules. But as always, when people’s values and reputations are involved, the once black and white line of what is right and wrong becomes gray.
It is often hard to know what the right thing is as there could be feasible arguments for both sides, and when there is an incentive to do the wrong thing such as winning a competition, it may be hard to make rules against it, according to Harvey James, MU associate professor of applied economics.
In fact, it is safe to say that the vast majority of people do follow the rules. According to David “Chip” Kemp, MU livestock judging coach, it is a small percentage of people who don’t follow the rules that give the rest of us livestock exhibitors a bad name.
“In livestock exposition or basketball there have always been people who cheat and there always will be,” Kemp said.
It is easy to accept the fact that there will always be people who cheat. But it is harder to accept that the friendly competition, which is supposed to teach young people life lessons such as responsibility and how to win and lose graciously, has turned into how to manipulate and deceive others.
Competitions for 4-H and FFA members were designed to emphasize trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship, according to the Missouri State Fair’s code of ethics. The code continues to say that “accepting instructions, winning and losing with grace, helping others at stock shows, teaching younger members, treating animals humanely and ensuring that your meat animal is safe for consumption” is something all young exhibitors should strive to achieve.
The fact is that it is not always the young people who bend the rules; instead, it can be their parents, their mentors and other people who they look up to and respect. Kemp is quick to point out just how easily a child, or even a young adult, can be swayed by someone he or she admires. Ethic violations are not so much participated in by the young people but promoted by the adults, he said.
People need to learn to take responsibility for their actions at a young age, James said.
In the end, it is not so hard to determine right and wrong. Kemp summed it up by saying that anything that doesn’t try to deceive a judge or official is OK.
“Anything that you feel you can’t do out in public in fear that someone else will see it is wrong,” Kemp said.
Enforcing these rules, however, is quite a bit harder. From a judge’s standpoint, Kemp notes while it may be obvious a person is cheating, there is little a judge can do since officials at the show have already verified the animal’s weight, age and so forth. Therefore, the judge has no grounds to bury the animal in the class or even call the person out if he or she is suspicious.
James recognizes the fact that rules or formal laws only work well when it is easy to tell that they have been broken and when such rules can be easily enforced.
The real responsibility lies in the show officials’ hands. It is a big job that is hard to fill. Officials must be willing to stand by their rules even with excessive political pressure.
Kemp suggests posting drug and DNA testing results at such places as the state fair.
“If their reputation matters at all, then they will think twice,” he said.
The truth is there will always be people who bend or even downright break the rules even though it is wrong and goes against the very things exhibiting livestock is supposed to teach. Each exhibitor has to make a stand on his or her values and morals, remembering that in the long run an honest and good reputation will get him or her a lot further in life than any banner won at a jackpot.
