A chuckwagon race at the Calgary Stampede in 1957. Canada’s greatest city? Below: One resident of Canada’s greatest city camps it up for the occasion.
“Autopsy shows lead horse in chuckwagon accident died of ruptured aortic aneurysm,” shouts a headline in yesterday’s Calgary Herald.
So… what? The Calgary Stampede’s going to blame the chuckwagon crash that killed three horses Thursday night on “equine error”? Shoulda seen a vet, that dumb hoss…
Have you noticed that in such situations it’s usually the driver that gets blamed? If a passenger jet skids off the runway with fatal results, it’s pilot error. If a bus plunges into a ravine, it’s the driver’s mistake. If a kid piles an ATV into a tree, well, he was inexperienced and wasn’t wearing a helmet. Not our fault! It’s reassuring to consumers, and, more important, may limit the liability of the company that serviced the jet in China, sold the ATV, or whatever.
But in Calgary, during a Stampede chuckwagon race, it would violate the unwritten laws of Cowtown to blame the driver – at least if he’s a macho man in a Stetson hat and a pair of high-heeled boots with jingly spurs – so this time the poor horse will have to take the rap.
Still, you’ve got to admit, blaming the “mishap,” as the Herald’s stenographer neutrally put it, on a horse is a new one.
What’s next for the Herald’s headline writer in Hamilton, Ont.? “Autopsy shows crippled rope-calf had congenital trick knee”? Nope, here’s the Herald’s actual alternative headline: “Record attendance Thursday at Calgary Stampede; Centennial year drawing in the crowds.” Now that’s the Herald we know and love! When in doubt, count Stampede gate receipts.
There’s scant satisfaction in saying “I told you so,” but as was predicted in this space on May 25, and again on July 5, horses were certain to die cruelly at the Stampede this year, as they die every year and will continue to die every year, as long as the Stampede insists on treating animal cruelty as a suitable spectacle for entertainment.
There’s really no getting around this obvious interpretation any more. The wagon driver’s no doubt sincere on-air tears for his horse, which he described as a pet, won’t do it. The Stampede’s pathetic excuses certainly won’t do it. Nor will the Stampede’s meaningless promises to improve its “Fitness to Compete Program.”
When a Stampede spokesperson says, “the Calgary Stampede, and the people who bring their animals to the Stampede, care deeply about the welfare and well-being of those animals,” you’re entitled to laugh out loud. It’s all stuff that’s found on the floor of the Stampede cattle barn.
This is about money. The money you can generate in substantial amounts by holding exciting events. The money you can make in prizes pushing your horses hard around the tight corners of the chuckwagon races.
And if animals are put in danger to generate the excitement required to make money, well, too bad, Durango. That’s the true attitude of everyone involved in this disgrace.
Our sour prime minister goes around telling the world that Calgary’s the “greatest city” Canada. Well, I’ll give him this: it’s a pretty enough town in a suburban sort of way, and the streets are clean. But every year at Stampede, “Canada’s greatest embarrassment” would be closer to the truth.
Meanwhile, Calgary City Council is considering a ban on shark fin soup at the city’s Chinese restaurants. I’m certainly not saying this isn’t a worthy cause if the trade in sharks’ fins is endangering the species worldwide. And no one’s saying horses are an endangered species – except every year during the Stampede.
Just the same, Calgary’s aldermen – as they still insist on calling themselves – would do better if they turned their minds to cleaning up their own back 40 first.
Real men don’t kill horses for fun. It’s time for the Calgary Stampede to man up and end this practice.
This post also appears on Rabble.ca.
Good for you David. I am sure someone in Calgary will point the finger at the bullfights in Spain as being a disgrace.
By the way it would also be appropriate to mention why the bulls and the horses jump to get the riders off their backs. The very first time I saw a rodeo I was told that they are ticklish that is why they jump. Yeah right. Try doing to yourself what they do to the animals and I bet you will hit the ceiling.
ENOUGH
We are in 2012 my friends and we evolve with time. That our prime minister is so proud of it is not a surprise to me, in fact some of his ministers would perform better if we used the same trick to get the bulls to jump on them.
A ruptured aortic aneurysm in a horse – I can’t even imagine the horror. In a human, the aorta is about twice the diameter and about the same consistency as a garden hose. If you scale that up for a horse, well…
So the horses are driven at breakneck (or perhaps breakartery) speed in crushing heat dragging a chuckwagon and some dude in a hat behind it, being whipped to a frenzy for the delectation of the screaming crowd. When the heart and attendant arteries give out from the pressure put on them, the horse dies – and not right away – from massive internal bleeding as his lifeblood is pumped into his chest and/or abdomen through the hole in his massive central artery. Loss of consciousness, unbelieveable pain, horrible death.
This is what people come to see?
If you treated your pet like that, you’d be done for animal cruelty, but if it’s done for money and “cowboy culture”, well, that’s alright, isn’t it?
You need to stop being such a butthurt fag about this.
Well said Filostrato. What a show of barbaric entertainment.
It is hard to believe that we have all kinds of so called celebreties witnessing this new age Rome Colisseum show. In the meantime the few that are there protesting this disgusting display are called everything possible bad one can find in a dictionary. I am sure Ezra Levant is already salivating for his comments on the bleeding hearts like myself.
Well, thanks, Bill – I’ll bet YOUR spurs go jingle-jangle-jingle…
I know the facts can get in the way of a good story, but this illogical article is a load of ….you know what. “Blame”? Why are you attempting to put words in someone’s mouth?
What is animal abuse? Bullfighting, horse racing, horseback riding, Super Dogs, people dressing their pets in silly clothes or pushing them around in strollers….. a person’s opinion is simply his or her own set of biases being expressed.
I knew a girl who died of the same condition and nobody tried to say it was her parents or her coach who caused it. Nor did we think there was any attempt to “BLAME” her when an explanation was given for her totally unexpected collapse.
And I haven’t heard of anybody laughing about these deaths, except you.
Excellent comment Elly Jay. If the animal activists would concentrate on real animal abuse they would be a lot better off. How many horses have to be put down in a year because they break a leg in a badger hole or have heart attacks while on a trail ride of out eating in the pasture. No one seems to care about these but when chuckwagen horses have an accident, which is exactly what it is, everyone gets upset and wants to cancel the races. These horses are well cared for and they are bred and love to run. They are doing what they like to do and do best. Traffic accidents happen and no one wants to ban driving a car – what’s the difference. These horses are well cared for and become part of the chuckwagen drivers and their families lives. Of course they are upset when there is an accident as they aren’t intentionally caused. There are precautions taken, tests done, equipment improvements to try and make this sport as safe as possible. These horses are typically off the track and are bred for racing. Would you rather see them sitting in a pasture getting fat and out of shape or even worse ending up in the hands of a meat buyer or doing what they love to do – run.
I watched the TV highlights last night way over here in the east. The play by play guy is very articulate and has an exciting voice.
The event is rarely called chuckwagon races. Over and over we are told it’s the “Rangeland Derby.” Can you western cowpokes tell us what a rangeland derby really is?
Tom – a derby is a horse race by another name. That word means the same thing at the Stampede as it does at Churchill Downs. Or, for that matter, at the Woodbine racetrack.
As for the “Rangeland” moniker… not really sure the history of that one or how it came to be attached to the chuckwagon races. The word is synonymous with grazing land (for cattle), though.
Well, elle jay, then you haven’t seen all the news forums’ rodeo thugs & supporters’ comments this week. Not only are several making light about this particular horse or other animals subjected to rodeo cruelty, but are also being downright abusive towards people, as usual, just as they are towards nonhumans. That’s no coincidence. Living amongst these abrasive people is a continual assault upon the finer sensibilities of *some* human beings, but we try to bear it in order to continue to help these “other nations” – the ones who are made to suffer the very MOST on this planet, and in virtually EVERY sector. So quit telling us to “go fight for this, or that,” because most of us DO already, and even that’s not good enough for you. You’re just pissed the truths are coming to light and people don’t like what they’re seeing.
Tell me, if the horses’ safety is such a concern, why isn’t drug testing mandatory for ALL horse racing in AB then? That poor horse may have been given a “milkshake” (sugar & baking soda) prior to the race, directly CAUSING his death. Oh, but, ssshhhhhh….we’re not supposed to talk about, much less KNOW about, such industry secrets.
Every year I’m sick over this hideous StOmpede, waiting to hear of yet another animal who died horribly, and being aware of all the abuse that already preceded ALL the rodeos here and elsewhere.
And I’m so sick, too, of all the excuses and illogical arguments rodeo supporters use ad nauseum. The horses are loved, family members. They’re taken good care of, better than most ‘pets.’ We’re ‘saving’ them from slaughter, and other such twisted reasoning. But most of them never actually answer to the deeper questions asked, because that might just unearth the shakiness of this mindless rhetoric. It’s like they’re clones, all imprinted with the same scripts, but not the faintest understanding beyond their hackneyed repetition. In fact, when I’ve suggested that if they are such huge horse lovers and so they might instead work on creating more sanctuaries for horses who would otherwise be sent to slaughter (by fellow humans & the rodeo industry itself), and possibly even with the cooperation of animal advocates, I received a spate of “thumbs down” in jig-time. What does that tell you about their true motivations? It’s certainly NOT real “love.”
When are they going to finally make that connection, the one that tells them these excuses are JUST like the ones abusers use to condone violence against THEIR “loved ones”, and that people are now SEEING that for themselves?
“I’ve given you a beautiful house, presents, all the amenities you could ask for, you’re so well-off….” yadda-yadda, “now sit still while I HIT YOU SOME MORE for not doing my bidding when I say so!” Because they think they’re OWED and it’s perfectly OKAY to trade off material provisions for the ‘right’ to abuse others.
Same with the rodeo mentality. “Let me USE you to make money for me, to feed my ego, and I’ll “take care” of you until I use and abuse you again.” If this wasn’t just rationalization, there would be no such implements as whips, spurs, cinches, electric prods, human teeth (to bite horses’ ears) etc. used in the rodeo circuit.
Then again, stats rank Alberta as the Domestic Violence Capital of Canada, and it isn’t in the “top tier” of animal protection rankings across Canada, either, so I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised, since animal abuse has been shown to be clearly linked to family violence as well as the histories of serial killers. Tellingly, the day AFTER this poor horse died, the line-ups for the “chucks” were apparently even LONGER. Call the Romans – their descendants are all here.
rodeos are held today allegedly to honor the past and the pioneers, yada yada, the real pioneers preferred co-operation from their animals and encouraged that took care of them, and where the hell does bull riding fit into this tradition? no self respecting pioneer would force animals to misbehave to prove how effectively they can dominate them, they . it’s sad to see that although farm animals have evolved, alot of humans haven’t. too bad about the poor misguided machos and their fans who are get so carried away by animal cruelty that they don’t even see it for what it is, they should try to get a life and stop misrepresenting us, rodeo has a small number of fans in the world population, but the rest of us too often look the other way, “they are just animals” after all, (which is the real animal, tell me again, because i get mixed up? are humans supposed to be the intelligent ones?
and i don’t know what comments about anal sex and homosexuality have to do with animal cruelty Bill, obviously couldn’t think of an intelligent argument.. BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ONE!
especially hilarious are the comments by those who believe about the horses being born to run and how they love it and how the owners love their “pets” and treat them so good, hilarious and scary at the same time, what do they do on their pet’s birthday, pull their teeth just to show how much they care? chase them over a cliff? (“but they LUV to run..”)