The yelling, drums and trumpets, singing, music and laughs were heard all over downtown Calgary on July 5 as the Stampede Parade flooded the streets of Cowtown.
The city was celebrating the upcoming 10 days of fun, competition, human power and family fun. But just a few days later sad news started to come out.
The first horse collapsed and died on July 8. Authorities explained that as medical conditions.
Two days later vets put another animal down after it broke a leg competing in a race.
The next day more sad news came out causing a tide of a protest among the animal rights activists. Authorities determined that one of the drivers accidentally impeded another driver, which caused the second rig to veer into the track inner rail. The collision resulted in another euthanasia due to a severe leg injury.
Finally, three more horses were put down following the last night of races after the right lead horse on one of the wagons broke a bone in a hind leg. The other two were a part of the same team and suffered severe injuries.
The last episode started somewhat of a roar across the country, with Stampede authorities promising to investigate all cases and take some measures.
Thus, the total count for horse fatalities at this year’s Rangeland Derby came up to six. Six horses died or were put down in seven days! Most animals were hurt during the chuckwagon races.
I feel that there is no need to say anything else. One time might be an accident, two – a coincidence, but three is a consistent pattern. Six dead horses mean that something isn’t working right.
The experts have altered the chuckwagon races back in 2011 to improve the safety of the animals, but the current statistics suggest that the changes weren’t enough.
Wonderful writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, whose Little Prince influenced me and probably most of you in the early days of life, said, “you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
When I was a kid, I took that phrase as guidance on my responsibilities for my pets. But as I was growing, this idea spread further over to the relationship between people and animals around us in general.
I believe that humans are responsible for living beings we took out of the wild and domesticated. Being creatures that have the ability to learn, preserve knowledge and develop we are accountable for animals whose natural patterns we break. Be it cows or pets, hamsters, bunnies or bears raised in captivity, geese that quit migrating and now live at the Boundary Dam or squirrels, raccoons or seagulls feeding on our garbage. We over smart nature, so any repercussions of our decisions are on us.
I never could understand or take in the concept of corridas (bullfights). Once went to a Portuguese one, where matadors just somewhat poke bulls, and other participants of this “dance” surround and secure animals until they are subdued. In that type of bullfighting, animals were provoked and injured, but not killed in the end.
I was a kid then and even though the bull with mad eyes looked really scary, I couldn’t understand the concept of hurting him more and more. For the show? For people to feel almighty? To once again prove that we are tough as a shell? But we are the ones who already domesticated them and raised them in captivity. Who do we need to prove anything to?
I still don’t understand bullfighting (well, I don’t get any fighting), but after all, at corridas animals’ death or injuries is the concept of the show. It’s not at the Stampede. So do horses really need to die there?
I know chuckwagon races are a tradition and cowboys used to race like that in their real wagons after cattle round-up back in days. (But did they actually? Another version suggests that this type of Stampede competition was created purely for fun about 100 years ago). I know it’s a sport. But I also know that owners usually bond with their horses (maybe even more than we bond with dogs) and it often really hurts them. So I’m pretty sure there must be a way of having fun without injuring or killing anything.
The bottom line, the gladiator games once also were a norm, but not no more. And yes, the horses are bred to race and as professional athletes they need it, but there are other ways to let them race without going down like flies sprayed with Raid.
So with six horses dead, it feels that it is the time to change something at the Stampede.
