Rodeos are considered “proud, cultural traditions” (the critical thinker has probably learned by now to be wary of this kind of terminology when used to justify some behaviour) in many parts of North America. It supposedly stems from many typical ranching practices used in the earlier days of America, involving the taming and use of cattle and horses (for comments on the fallacy of some of this claim, see rodeo history). Eventually the skills involved in such livelihoods were tested against others in competitive settings: rodeos. Perhaps because of the romantic, noble notion of cowboys, the pride they carry in their skills, and the entertainment value, rodeos caught on as crowd favourites and started popping up around the Unites States and Canada (ignoring other countries for the sake of this article), catering more to the rural communities for which the rodeo events and skills were of more relevance and interest. To this day they are still carried out, though with increasingly little to do with actual modern ranching. The Calgary Stampede is purportedly the home of the world’s largest outdoor rodeo. The Stampede is an annual festival held in Calgary, Canada, dating back to the early 1900’s. Along with the rodeo, it consists of a variety of other events and attractions that draw (at least in recent years) over 1 million attendees during the typically 10-day-long festival. This year the Stampede will be taking place July 9-18th.

The first thing to note is the adaptation of practices such as calf-roping and steer-wrestling from necessary ranching activities to forms of entertainment. This in itself should be a red flag. Any justifications that the former use might have basically fly out the window for the latter, leaving activities that can stress and harm animals being perpetuated and even increased only for the sake of the entertainment value. This carries with it significant ethical issues, the severity of which depends on what, exactly, occurs during the rodeo activities (specifically, in regard to the animals used).

Thanks in part to animal welfare/rights activist groups and public scrutiny, North American rodeos may be more regulated now than ever before to promote safety for both the human and non-human participants. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) is one of the largest governing bodies in the business, overseeing about one third of all the rodeos in the United States, and claims strong foundations of humane animal treatment: PRCA animal welfare statement.

An excerpt:

Scottsdale, Arizona equine veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Schleining has this to say about the PRCA, “The PRCA upholds the standard of humane care of rodeo animal athletes, and in my professional opinion rodeo remains a healthy, humane, family oriented sport.”

Note the use of the term “animal athletes”, a loaded term subtly implying that the animals involved are happy, willing participants in the events. Keeping the above link and quote in mind, please now take a moment to examine this video footage from various PRCA-run rodeos around the U.S.; footage which made the PRCA so uncomfortable that they apparently pressured Youtube into removing it on false copyright claims and shutting down the account of the animals rights organization that posted it (this was eventually reversed by a successful lawsuit against the PRCA): Rodeo Cruelty - What the PRCA does not want you to see.

Take what you want from this, but what is evident is either a complete falsity of the PRCA’s stated standards, or a severe lack of enforcement and compliance with them. Either way, it is absolutely unacceptable. So what does this have to do with the Calgary Stampede? First, I am presenting it as a glimpse into the rodeo industry in general, and the meaningless quality that “animal welfare” standards can have. Second, regardless of possible claims that some of the incidents seen are isolated and rare breaches of “ideal” industry conduct, some of the cruelty witnessed is an inherent part of certain rodeo events; events that will also be taking place at the Stampede next month.

For the sake of brevity (too late, perhaps), I will mention just one of these events for now: calf-roping (referred to in the Calgary Stampede instead as “tie-down roping”, its less off-putting alternative name). As can be seen in the video, there is no “humane” way to do this. Young calves are startled or otherwise prompted into running across the arena and are then lassoed around the neck by a “cowboy”, violently halting them in their tracks, causing severe stress and possible injury to their necks, and often flipping them backward in the air in the process (audience members often delight in this, either completely ignorant of the poor calf’s well-being or simply apathetic towards it). If that wasn’t bad enough, the cowboy then jumps off the horse and very rapidly and violently grabs the calf, flips it on its back and binds its feet. Remember, this is a baby animal. Its mother is nowhere in sight. It is alone being chased by a man on a horse, violently yanked to the ground and then man-handled. It has no idea what’s going on (or if it does, it is only by having to constantly repeat this stressful experience). As always, statements by rodeo organizations brush off criticism, in this case by claims that jerking/flipping of the calves is not allowed, neck injury rates are very low, etc (though what is strangely absent is any defense of criticism about the psychological treatment/impact on the calf; they’re “just animals”, after all...). But there are always rebuttals to these as well. For example, the footage clearly shows that calves are violently treated during the ropings (allowed or not) as the nature of the event makes this almost unavoidable, and statistics looking at neck injuries typically have looked at competition events, not private practice runs which animal rights activists point out tend to be worse, given their less-monitored nature and rider recklessness.

Other events that the Stampede supports can be found at Rodeo Events, and compared with the aforementioned footage or other links to see what can and does occur in these events.

What it comes down to - as it often does in cases of animal exploitation - is “why”. Why constantly tolerate “accidents”, “exceptions”, “isolated cases”, and fuzzy excuses when the health and well-being (ie. welfare) of animals is at stake, and especially when the only gain is “entertainment” value, no less?! This is a question that I can not stress enough.

While some events are more benign (such as barrel racing, which is arguably more of a harmless competitive partnership between horse and rider with no target/victim animals involved) than others (like calf-roping and steer wrestling, which specifically target “victim” animals), the overall nature of them involves inevitable stress, hardship and injury to animals, many of whom have no desire to be participating (contrary to what rodeo authorities claim, cooperation of an animal does not equate to willingness or desire, as any circus trainer could tell you) in the first place. But then one must remember that, typically, organizations like the PRCA that profit by the exploitation of animals are not concerned about this latter aspect anyway. By the PRCA’s own words, they believe that “animal welfare” means not only the care and humane treatment of animals, but also - and I wish to emphasize this - that “humans have the right to use animals” (PRCA animal welfare definition). A curious - and convenient - addendum, to say the least. Indeed, such wording allows them to claim any use of the animals as a pre-existing “right”, and *then* to address the issue of treating the animals as humanely as possible, *given* that use. This subtle implication resulting from the deliberate choice of wording is precisely what allows them to support and conduct activities like calf-roping and still be in compliance with standards of “animal welfare”.

In fact, this is a common problem/tactic seen in various organizations that oversee the exploitation of animals. These organizations and their appointed "animal welfare experts" consider animal welfare under a pre-existing assumption that the activities the animals are involved in are acceptable and unavoidable in the first place. An assumption which generally is not questioned, for political and business reasons. For example, an "animal welfare expert" may work to ensure that a farm animal is treated "well", given that it is being held and slaughtered for food, or will ensure that a bull is treated "well" (relatively speaking), given that it is part of a rodeo and therefore already subject to the minimal requirements of what those activities consist of. Thus "welfare" is very much a relative term, causing its meaning to potentially be somewhat inconsequential to the animals themselves.

To highlight this further, I have seen videos by the fur industry toting an animal welfare expert on staff who ensures “nothing but top notch care” to the mink, which are held in small cages waiting to be gassed and skinned for the fashion industry. Forgive me if that seems as ethical as a Nazi officer ensuring “humane” treatment of Jews before they are exterminated (since I know such analogies can be sensitive and misconstrued, please note that I am not considering Jews as animals nor some animal welfare experts as Nazis; that is neither the point nor intent of the analogy). As noble as the intention might be, it does seem a bit perverse in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, back to the stampede...

It is unfortunate in this day and age that activities like those in many rodeos are still considered “entertainment”, and are supported and enjoyed by civilian and governmental bodies alike. They continue to be promoted as “good ol’ fashioned fun for the family”, often with goofy gimmicks, music, sound effects and commentators to make light of the entire situation. They also continue to be seen as impressive demonstrations of bravado and showmanship, a mentality that (in addition to the “culture” argument) perpetuates bull-fighting as a form of “entertainment” in other parts of the world. It becomes increasingly clear that the nickname for the Calgary Stampede, “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth”, is appropriate not only because of the grandeur of spectacle it shares with circuses performed by the likes of the Ringling Bros, but because they also share a similar style of animal exploitation and mistreatment for the purpose of entertaining the masses for profit.

It is time that rodeos be relegated to the past, and I sincerely hope that, in the near future, the Calgary Stampede will move towards keeping and promoting only those aspects of entertainment that do not involve the stressing and injuring of animals (whether an inherent part of an event or an inevitable and reoccurring by-product). If the organizers are simply worried about losing tourist dollars if they had to give up the needless and often cruel rodeo, then in the words immortalized by Clark Gable, “frankly...I don’t give a damn.” The Almighty Dollar has been the cause of enough grief in this world.

I hope that this article has given some insight into why I feel the way I do about the rodeo and the Calgary Stampede, and why I won’t be rushing off to take part now that I am a local resident. That said, there is much more depth to the various anti-rodeo arguments than what I have covered here (particularly because I only focused on one event - calf-roping), but I will leave that up to the reader for further exploration.