How Many Rodeo Deaths Are Too Many?

Changes were made after six horses died in the 2010 Calgary Stampede. So this year, only two had to be put down after breaking legs in the chuckwagon races. Whether this represents acceptable losses for a popular event or inexcusable risk to animals are opposite sides of the rodeo tug of war.

Last year Stampede spokesman Doug Fraser observed so few deaths out of a total of 7,500 head of livestock showed the level of care for the animals. If deaths are the only measure, Fraser is right. In 2009, three horses and a steer died. In 2005, nine horses part of a 200-horse trail ride were pushed off a city bridge and killed after the group spooked.

Public pressure, particularly from animal-rights groups, has led to ever-improving standards. This year the Stampede launched Fitness to Compete to ensure “that only the healthiest and fittest of animals will compete…”

Fraser’s media release about the new standards states, “The bucking and bovine stock of the Calgary Stampede Rodeo will also receive increased attention while on Park. Brought into the Park each day, every animal in the rodeo will undergo a thorough veterinarian inspection prior to competition. The vet will have the authority to withdraw the animal from the day’s event should the animal’s health appear to be in question in any way.”

Should animals be used as entertainment?

From a health and safety standpoint, the Stampede is likely ahead of many other rodeos in assuring the welfare of animals used in these sporting events. What no amount of care can address is the more fundamental questions about animals being used for human entertainment.

Rodeos are far removed from the rural culture that fostered them, although they continue to thrive in part because of it. Ranchers still gentle wild horses (“breaking” is old school and frowned on). They still rope and brand calves. Those and other farming and ranching activities raise different questions and offer other opportunities as we consider our responsibilities toward the creatures who share the planet with us.

The Calgary Stampede and the dozens of smaller rodeos are not a necessary part of livestock raising. So the questions they pose are better addressed by wrestling with questions such as those posed on the BBC’s site, Ethics guide to Animals for entertainment.

Our species clearly finds watching animals competing with each other highly entertaining. Gladiatorial spectacles, bull fights, cock fights, horse and dog racing, wrestling, boxing, and rodeos have all tapped into that fascination.

If we are serious about wanting a more peaceful world, we need to examine our penchant for inflicting fear and pain on each other and on our animal relatives.

Photo from sweetscape via Flickr

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Charlie P.

4:33PM PDT on Sep 28, 2011

"Our species clearly finds watching animals competing with each other highly entertaining."

1) Count me and my fam out of the whole "species" generalization mate.

2) For those of "our species" who enjoy watching animals hurt each other out of fear and stress of being repeatedly goaded and provoked into unnatural behaviour......why don't they get a couple of their compadres to dress up and watch them scratch at each other's faces and bloody each other up a bit??

Janine H.,

I love that proverb! One of my faves... so good to see it posted here where so many others can see it and get a little food for thought :)

send a green star

Joy J.

5:31PM PDT on Sep 5, 2011

Rodeos are horrible. I don't know why anyone would like to watch them. I wouldn't.

Ann S.

10:21PM PDT on Jul 29, 2011

The "cowboys" should get branded instead of the cattle. Maybe they'd quit doing it if they realized how much it hurt.

Barbara B.

9:26AM PDT on Jul 29, 2011

I can say, back before we even knew of Rodeo's, there was and still is the Day of the Cowboy. Cowboy's have and still today have rodeo's for entertainment purposes. But even when cowboys was rounding up the herds (cattle and horses) if their horse tripped, stepped in a rut, was snake bitten,get sick in the winter, the moral conscience of the cowboy was to put the horse out of their misery. In today's world, there is no moral conscience only dollar signs.....

Carrie Anne B.

5:31AM PDT on Jul 26, 2011

interesting article :) thanks for sharing :)

Michael M.

10:23PM PDT on Jul 25, 2011

If it were people instead of animals I'd say no amount is too many.

Hope S.

1:47PM PDT on Jul 25, 2011

The answer would be different if it was, "How many people killed in Rodeos is acceptable?" Animals should not be placed in jeopardy for the sake of profits.

Janine H.

7:08AM PDT on Jul 23, 2011

This is a very sad story. Other animals and plants have to go only because "we" humans do not want to share the world with other life forms, these life forms "we" would not eat (vegetarian food is not a bad idea, or eating with conscience as the so called primitive cultures did and still do, if they still exist. No meat/fish every day). "We" destroy everything around us and "we" forget, that everything is important to survive, too.

As little child i thought that rain is when God and the angels cry - because "we" humans have forgotten that we need this "intelligence", someone who could help... if "we" hadn't turned away for many centuries ago...

"Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only when the last river has been poisoned; Only when the last fish has been caught; Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
(Native American proverb)

"We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers." (Martin Luther King)