The Animal Protection Party of Canada Denounces “Cruelty as Entertainment” at the Calgary Stampede
July 04 2024 - 3:37PM
When the 2024 edition of the Calgary Stampede kicks off tomorrow
for its ten-day run, you can expect to see rodeo business as usual:
Broncos being busted; steers ruthlessly wrenched to the ground;
calves cruelly roped, and horses driven at life-threatening speed
along the chuckwagon track’s legendary “half-mile of hell.” You can
also expect to see pancakes being flipped for the public by the
smiling likes of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Canada’s Official
Opposition leader Pierre Poilièvre and perhaps even the head of the
Green Party of Canada, Elizabeth May.
Who won’t you see inside the Calgary Stampede grounds? Any
member of the Animal Protection Party of Canada (APPC).
“Rodeo events have no place in the modern world, both because of
the distress and suffering they inflict on animals and because they
bring out the worst instincts of cruelty-as-pleasure in human
beings,” declares Liz White, leader of the APPC. “As North
America’s first federal political party dedicated solely to the
protection of all animals and the environment, we condemn all
events at the Calgary Stampede that involve the abuse of animals as
entertainment.”
Over many decades, rodeos have been described as “a cruel detour
to the slaughterhouse,” given the high rate of injury and death
among animals, for many of whom the abattoir is the end of the
ride. For politicians, on the other hand, public appearances at
spectacles like the Calgary Stampede can constitute a
cruelty-condoning path to elected office. All that’s required,
beyond the flipping of a few pancakes and the shaking of many
hands, is hearty endorsement of the “heritage” and “cultural”
aspects of the events and some choice references to the
half-billion-dollar boost that ten days of Stampede provide to the
economy.
Yet, if it were stripped of all events involving stress, pain,
danger or death to animals, the Calgary Stampede could truly become
what its website promises: “A gathering place that hosts, educates
and entertains visitors from around the world.” Already, the
Stampede presents concerts, midway rides, children’s programming,
educational sessions on agricultural-animal welfare, indigenous
history and much more. “Surely,” says Barry MacKay, APPC General
Manager, “without rodeo, the breadth of its attraction to the
public could be even broader and just as economically
viable.”
It’s notable that a growing majority of Canadians (67%) oppose
the use of animals in rodeo events, according to a 2023 poll
conducted by Research Co. and Glacier Media.
“It’s time,” says MacKay, “for Canada’s mainstream political
parties—representing Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats and
Greens—to put down their pancake-flipping utensils, take off their
aprons and glad-handing smiles, and join the APPC in condemning
animal cruelty as entertainment at the world-famous Calgary
Stampede.”
Liz White, Leaderliz@animalprotectionparty.ca | 416-809-4371 |
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Barry MacKay, General Managerbarry@animalprotectionparty.ca |
905-472-9731 |
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