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Why we remain resolute in our opposition to the Calgary Stampede rodeo and chuckwagon racing:
In the over 15 years of actively protesting the Calgary Stampede's rodeo and chuckwagon racing we have come to see the tide change in our favour, running counter to the claims and pronouncements of both the Stampede Board, and the local media. Perhaps the most telling proof of this came a couple years ago when, in response to the Cloverdale Rodeo decision to ban certain events from their rodeo, both myself and a member of the Calgary Stampede were invited to discuss this on BC Talk Radio as it applied to the Calgary spectacle. The Stampede of course refused to engage in any dialogue with our side, so it was left to be where I would discuss our position and then the Stampede would give their perspective. During the course of their dialogue it was admitted that every year there are animal deaths that occur at the Stampede-a far cry from their official position, which can be read on both wikipedia and their own website...that the deaths that do take place are far and few, and the result of tragic accidents.
Given that these deaths occur on a regular basis during chuckwagon races, it is clear that these are no longer 'accidents', but a regular consequence of such a spectacle, and thus completely avoidable, by bringing an end to this death trap extravaganza. Obviously they cannot prevent these deaths from occurring or they would have, so the only way to do so is to stop running these 'races' entirely.
As far as the rodeo events go, there are some that have the appearance of being more barbaric, such as the calf-roping, but the truth is that every event carries its own level of brutality, along with injuries and death.
At one point, there was much public outcry over the jerk-down of the calves during the roping event, so the Stampede decreed that such an action 'could' result in penalties being assessed, etc. The end result was the censoring of said acts and others, so as to keep the public in the dark over what was going on, save for those in the grandstand. And still animal deaths and injuries continued to occur, unabated.
Interestingly, I wound up being contacted by people within the industry, some of them genuinely interested in trying to clean up their own 'sports', while others were doing so to inform me about the goings-ons taking place on their rival camps....rodeo people telling me the behind-the-scene stories about chucks, and chucks people ratting out the rodeo enclave. And then of course, I had spoken to some people in the ranching community, who expressed their own opposition to the exploitative and abusive ways of the rodeo, citing such actions as being a show of great disrespect towards these beasts that are, admittedly being raised by them for consumption. For many of these ranchers it is a demeaning and callous disregard for these individuals' lives, a rather base lack of sensitivity towards them.
The truth is, no matter if I run down the list of issues we have with each event, be it the doctoring of chuck wagon horse teams with substances that increase their heart rate so as to maximise their speed-at grave risk to heart attacks etc....something that has seen a dramatic increase in recent years, incidentally, to the breaking of limbs and hairline fractures during barrel-racing, or the hyper-extension of bulls' backs as they are sent bucking in pain and fear from having hotshots applied to them at the opening of the chutes, the popularity of this 'sport' has been on the wane for many years now, irrespective of the claims being peddled to the generally unsuspecting public.
For arguments' sake, if we were to accept the position taken by the Stampede that rodeo and chuckwagon racing remains very popular, does it make sense that literally hundreds, perhaps even thousands of tickets are made available free for people who buy Stampede lottery tickets, or as comps to businesses for their employees to use, resulting in a 'sometimes' visual of a fullhouse or almost sell-out of the grandstand?
Over the years we have had numerous sources inform us of the continued drop in sales of said seats; people are just not buying them as they would have us believe. This would be a very dangerous admission to make on their part, at a time when they are desperately trying to expand the Stampede properties and the venue itself while selling the concept to outside investors seeking to locate in the downtown core with their hotels and condominiums, especially now when the economy is in a tailspin.
We do not stand opposed to an annual party, where the entire city can get into a celebratory mood and let its proverbial hair down, if even for a few of the dog days of summer. We would be more than encouraging of such a party, actively participating in such a morale boost even. What we cannot do though, and as the increasing numbers of the public would indicate as well, is support an annual event where cruelty towards animals is the norm, where injuries and death are NOT the accidents they would have us believe, but more an expected-and accepted-form of “collateral damage”, a by-product or consequence of exploiting and abusing the lives of these beings, for the sake of some now tarnished lucre. And for that reason we will be out there yet again, peacefully protesting this sham of a spectacle and all the barbarism associated with it.
