Category: Opinion Editorial

Article originally published in the Daily Hive.

Bring up animal welfare to a rodeo supporter, and you’ll often hear the same set of arguments: these animals are trained. They’re used to it. They’re athletes akin to other rough sports, like football or boxing. While these arguments are easily unravelled, new footage from this year’s rodeo in Merritt kicks the legs out from under them entirely. 

The newly released footage taken by the Vancouver Humane Society shows handlers aggressively pulling and twisting a steer’s tail in the chute as he falls to his knees. Footage also shows steers with flank straps tightened around their sensitive underbellies and panic in their eyes, bucking wildly as saliva spurts from their mouths. Several animals become so agitated that they slip and fall to the ground of the arena. 

It’s common to see handling techniques like the ones shown in this video used in rodeo events. Pulling an animal’s tail or shaking their head initiates their “fight or flight” fear response, which causes them to perform the behaviours expected in a rodeo event: running away at high speeds or bucking violently. 

Generally, a compassionate observer can see the signs of stress in animals subjected to this treatment, including visible whites around the animals’ eyes, extended tongues, and excessive drooling. The reactions of the steers at the Nicola Valley Rodeo in Merritt are far more obvious, however. A look at the Pro Rodeo website tells us why. 

The Nicola Valley Rodeo page on the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association website lists the Steer Riding Contractor as “local beef cattle,” which suggests these steers are from a nearby farm and not a rodeo stock contractor who raises and keeps animals specifically for the purpose of being used in rodeo events.

Animals from farms are not accustomed to the fast pace of rodeos; in fact, the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Beef Cattle Code of Practice, which serves as an industry guideline for the care and handling of beef cattle in Canada, requires that quiet handling techniques be used on farms. The high-speed, rough nature of animal handling in rodeo events is completely contradictory to the handling guidelines for these same animals in a farm setting.  

Where other rodeo animals may have become accustomed to the stressful and rough handling inherent to the sport, this video footage reveals what could very well be these animals’ first rodeo. 

Of course, it would be erroneous to say that other animals who are used to rodeos no longer feel fear and stress. Adverse reactions from other rodeo animals can be seen in footage from this year’s BC rodeo events as well: a calf defecates as they are pulled along the ground by a rope fastened around their neck; a bucking horse jumps over a fence, landing on their shoulder; and multiple clips show animals thrashing around in rodeo chutes and resisting handlers. 

In other cases, the animals’ relatively subtle response to stressful stimuli like flank straps, ear pulling, and tail twisting could be a result of learned helplessness.  

Learned helplessness is a psychological state that animals can experience when they repeatedly face a stressful situation over which they have no control. Though they continue to experience a heightened stress response, they lose motivation to try to change their situation and appear passive.

Because these individual beef cattle have likely not become resigned to the treatment common in rodeos, their responses offer the public a glimpse into what the beginning of the journey may look like for all rodeo animals. After all, every animal used in these events has experienced a “first rodeo.”

Animals used in timed events like roping, wrestling, and bucking must endure multiple rodeos each season; they face stressful travel between events; and they experience hours of use in rodeo practice sessions, where less polished iterations of the rodeo events seldom reach the public eye. 

Being used again and again for the sake of public entertainment does not transform frightened animals into willing athletes. Despite the pomp and pageantry about rodeo animals and human athletes working together in events, the two parties have remarkably little in common. 

Real athletes understand the rules of the game. They make the decision to sign up and prepare for events. They do not need to be coerced into the arena through the use of physical discomfort and pain. Each time they perform, it’s because they’ve chosen to do so. 

Animals don’t have the capacity to do this. They do not understand the concept of “winning” at so-called sports designed by and for humans. They can, of course, try to opt out of events by simply standing still – despite the stimuli activating their fight or flight instincts and at the risk of being punished for their disobedience.

Most importantly, where athletes’ first rodeos are marked with excitement, this year’s videos prove once again that animals’ journeys are marked by fear. 

With growing opposition to these events and so many other ways to celebrate BC’s vibrant community, the continued use of stressed animals for public entertainment makes less sense than ever. It’s high time for the province to buck the inhumane rodeo tradition.

Article originally published in the Daily Hive.

What would you do if you saw someone yanking an animal’s ear, twisting their tail, shaking them by the head until they’re thrashing about in stress? Would you turn away? Speak up in protest of the cruel treatment? Call in a report?

Or would you open your wallet?

Most British Columbians would say the unnecessary, cruel treatment of animals, like the aforementioned practices, which are commonly used to make rodeo animals “perform,” should be stopped immediately. In fact, only one-quarter of British Columbians agree with the use of animals in rodeo. Most would never hand over money to see this cruelty in person.

The catch? If you pay taxes in British Columbia, you’re paying for it anyway.

The BC Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport announced in February that it would provide $30 million in provincial funding to support BC-based events, including rodeos.

More than 2,000 British Columbians emailed Tourism Minister Lana Popham asking that this public funding not be used to subsidize an inhumane private industry. Their calls for justice were ignored – to the tune of nearly $800,000 given to events that include rodeos.

Meanwhile, the provincial government provides no funding for animal cruelty law enforcement. This means that no proactive monitoring is being done at BC rodeos to prevent the improper handling of animals.

The fast-paced nature of the events and aversive tools used to provoke fleeing and bucking behaviours in rodeo animals are contrary to the quiet handling techniques outlined in current standards for these same species on farms.

Now, with BC in the last stretch of its dreaded annual rodeo season, many organizers are opening the gates to animal suffering with taxpayer dollars in their pockets. Significantly, an incident earlier this year suggests that organizers are well aware of the welfare issues inherent in the sport.

Over the May long weekend, the Falkland Stampede held a number of bucking, roping, and wrestling events, which notoriously subject animals to fear, stress, and discomfort. Later, rodeo manager Melissa Seaman requested that an image of a calf being roped tightly around the neck be removed from Facebook, stating that “it doesn’t cast rodeo in the best light.”

Though organizers wished to censor publicly available images of a practice integral to their calf roping event, the Falkland Stampede was happy to accept $24,900 in public funding. The move should raise eyebrows: why is the Province giving funds to an entertainment event that only seems acceptable from carefully selected angles?

The Chilliwack Rodeo, which received $7,500 in funding and will be held August 11 to 13, previously came under fire for its apparent use of electric prods at a 2018 event. It was again the subject of media scrutiny when the Vancouver Humane Society released disturbing footage from last year’s event of animals being roughly handled and deliberately agitated.

In one video clip, a bull falls on his horn and is seemingly injured. In another clip, a calf runs into the arena fence while fleeing from a rider who is chasing them on horseback. Research has found that calves showed signs of distress across all the phases of calf roping, from being chased, lassoed, and caught to when they were released.

The Chilliwack Fair, which hosts the rodeo, received an additional $31,500.

The marketing of these events as “family-friendly” has drawn criticism for the behaviours they teach children. Many children are naturally drawn to animals, and studies show that children who are empowered to form positive emotional bonds with animals develop greater compassion. Conversely, a strong correlation exists between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans.

Rather than nurturing children’s empathy toward animals, rodeos teach children that animals are here for our entertainment. They demonstrate that animals should be treated with force rather than building trust.

But it’s not just the moral lesson that should give pause; several of the rodeos that received funding feature dangerous events specific to children and minors, such as mutton busting (children riding sheep), barrel racing, steer riding, and breakaway roping of calves.

Events that feature children’s rodeo activities include Valley West Stampede in Langley (which received $33,700), Lakes District Fall Fair, Children’s & Music Festival ($12,300), and the 74^th Annual North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo ($26,200).

Rodeo events are inherently risky to both humans and animals and can end in devastating consequences. A University of Calgary study found it to be one of the most dangerous sports in the world, with a catastrophic injury rate about 20 times higher than football. Tragically, children and adolescents have lost their lives in rodeo events as recently as this year.

From a government that recommends children avoid “high-risk” activities for their safety, the dissonance is astounding.

The public funding of these dangerous, inhumane, and outdated events shows a concerning lack of judgement on the part of provincial decision-makers, who could instead direct this funding to events like music festivals, fairs, and arts and cultural events that bring communities together and that don’t put animals in high-stress, high-risk situations.

By boycotting rodeos and writing an email to the Ministry of Tourism, British Columbians can send a clear message that animals, families, and taxpayers deserve better.