The Calgary Stampede is no small event. In 2024, it experienced record-breaking admissions. People come from all around the world, crowding the streets of Downtown Calgary, in order to enter the famous event. You could even say that Calgary’s culture owns the week.
There’s strangely flavoured foods, wild rides, concerts, and shows, but the Calgary Stampede is best known for its chuck wagon and horse racing. These rodeo events always act as the pinnacle of Stampede Week. However, a lesser known fact is that these events have become increasingly controversial because of their use of animals.
What Happened?
Just this year, 3 horses died at Stampede rodeo events. One of the horses was a steerer, and while experts say that it was an unusual death because of the high amount of training that steerers usually receive, many others believe that it is a proof of the long-term animal abuse that rodeos create.
We can compare rodeos to circuses, where it was historically common to torture and distress animals into behaving for entertainment purposes. While circuses have generally had a lot more attention regarding the aspect of animal abuse, many animal advocates argue that it is now time to turn our attention to rodeos.
How is it Being Supported?
Organizations such as PETA and the Vancouver Humane Society have fought to spread awareness about the relatively common frequencies of animal deaths during the Calgary Stampede. However, they struggle to receive a positive response for their efforts because of the popularity of the events.
If you’d like to support the cause, visit https://vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca/ or https://www.peta.org/blog/2024-calgary-stampede-animal-deaths/ to learn more about the different ways you can help advocate.
Reasons for Inaction
Since 1986, when the Calgary Stampede Rodeo first began to record animal deaths, 105 animals have died at the Stampede. Animal abuse organizations have been battling the Stampede over animal rights. It recently involved the Calgary Humane Society.
Many others share CHS’s (Calgary Humane Society’s) view on the deaths of animals during rodeo events and refuse to take action against it. Some reasons include:
- Chuckwagon racing and rodeo is a key component of Calgarian and general Western Canada culture
- The animals undergo thourough training in order to mitigate the risk of injury and death
- It’s natural for animals to die from injury
- The Stampede is distinct from other circuses, carnivals, and generally large events primarily because of the rodeo
- Rodeo events of the Stampede have been a long-standing tradition and it is a unifying symbol of Calgarians
What’s your opinion on the use of animals in entertainment?