Imagine this: someone tells you they've got a new idea for a community event, something that can bring people together to enjoy entertainment, food, and overall good times. Sounds awesome, right?
But then they tell you there's a small caveat: the entertainment will involve tormenting, torturing, injuring, and maybe even killing animals. Suddenly this new idea to boost the local community and economy seems downright evil. There's no way anyone would let that happen!
Well, it's already happening…in the form of
rodeos. But because these
bloody events started over a century ago, people are letting their
cruelty hide behind the mask of "tradition."This year, at one particularly gruesome rodeo in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
four animals were injured to the point of death.Sign the petition to shut down the Calgary Stampede!During this year's
Calgary Stampede rodeo, a contestant in a steer wrestling event
grabbed a young cow's neck, and twisted it until it broke. Audience members watched as the poor animal fell to the ground…and never got back up again.
Then, during the chuckwagon event -- where horses are forced to pull wagons at breakneck speed around a track --
three horses were injured so horrifically, they had to be euthanized.All rodeos are clearly brutal events by nature, even not considering these injuries. Animals are
tied up, beaten and prodded, and stressed to the point that handlers want them:
bucking, panicking, and struggling. The spectacle that they call entertainment is actually immense suffering and turmoil for these animals! During these moments of unbearable pressure, it is no wonder that horrific injuries and deaths like the ones described above happen.
In fact, there have been
105 animal deaths at the Calgary Stampede rodeo alone since 1986, and before that they didn't even record when an animal died.
Who knows how many hundreds more have been violently killed in the name of entertainment?Animal cruelty is illegal under laws in Canada, yet the trauma and violence of rodeos seems to be an exception. Then, cruel rodeo officials make a nice profit from this cruelty loophole.
We demand that Alberta's lawmakers do what is right and finally make this right by passing legislation banning rodeos, effectively shutting Calgary Stampede down! Sign the petition to protect rodeo animals today!