The popular mayor of Surrey, B.C., Dianne Watts, has written a letter to Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, urging him to advocate for a ban on calf-roping at the Calgary Stampede.
Mayor Watts supported the decision by Surrey’s Cloverdale Rodeo to drop calf-roping and several other rodeo events in 2007. In her letter, she tells Mayor Nenshi that eliminating calf-roping at the Stampede “would improve animal welfare and serve as an example to the Rodeo world.”
Mayor Nenshi is a member of the Calgary Stampede’s board of directors. VHS is asking the public to email him and ask that he speak out against calf-roping.
28 replies on “Mayor Watts to Mayor Nenshi: Ban calf-roping”
Please end this.
This is unacceptable as a form of entertainment and sport. I’m a Calgarian but flee the city every year at Stampede time because of the inhumane spectacle that is the rodeo. Torturing animals is NOT a valid form of entertainment for a civilized society.
your not a real calgarian then are ya? I cattle rope myself and my cattle are treated fairly as are they all. They are animals and yet they are family. I understand your distain, but if you don’t like it, leave. I appreciate keeping what my great great grandfather did alive and i am proud to be doing it. Its entertainment, and it is fair.
It’s not entertainment. Just ask the other 33 million Canadians who did not attend.
Well k lets go buckaroo! You’re not a real rancher are ya? Nope you’re not. YOU are a weekend “I wanna play cowboy” so you go hang with the other “wannabees” of your same mentality.
Animals are NOT for human entertainment, real ranchers would NEVER say they are. Don’t tell me calf roping at a rodeo is humane – It is NOT. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I am talking about – I DO. Don’t tell me that this “sport” celebrates great ranchers and the way they really do it on the range – I say BULLSHIT. You know what BS is don’t you? I have ridden ALL my life on our ranch and participated heavily in western riding events and the real deal on the farm. I have NEVER had to or participated in trying to rip a calf’s neck off his body. A friend of mine from the city once asked me, “How do you tell a real cowboy from a wannabee”? I said, “By the shit on his boots”. You see real men who love their animals and live for and by the land, will walk through shit and stand in shit to see to it that their animals are well cared for. To make sure a foal or calf stands within a certain amount of time, up to the bar for the first nursing. These men are the ones who go out one last time before bedding themselves for the night, to check their animals to make sure all is well in the barn or pasture – no one is suffering, stuck or cast into a fence or stall. These are REAL MEN and WOMEN ranchers/farmers and I am dam proud that I was taught from childhood to be one of them by my own father! I’ve been behind the scenes at rodeo events and the cruelty is beyond belief. REAL MEN ARE KIND TO ANIMALS! So k hang your head you good ol boy and head back to your apartment and put your boots back in the closet where they belong. Real ranchers and farmers don’t want a wannabee like you trying to pretend your one of us in support of rodeo. You have a great day y’all 🙂
Please stop this…it is dehumanizing in every way.
Hooray, Surrey!!
This is not a form of entertainment but a display of animal cruelty. Look at the faces of these animals…
All in the name of $
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way it treats it’s animals~ Gandhi. (This is nothing but animal abuse for profit……are we not better than this, in 2012????).
SOOO TRUE!!!!!
Its Cruelty Not culture!!
When it’s part of business (inoculation, tagging, etc.), well, I can’t say I like it, but until something else is faster, more economic and more humane, it’s still necessary.
But some rodeo and stampede activities are like the Running of the Bulls. Cruelty for entertainment. Bullriding? Bronco busting? Greased pig races? Really?
As I am reading about calf-roping in the Calgary Stampede I am torn between nausea, tears, and anger at people that have the power to stop an absolute cruelty against animals and instead exploit them for profit.
As I think about the countless animals the Calgary Stampede tortures mentally and physically for profit I feel so incredibly sad. I also feel very hopeless about my species, that after billions of years, is still so base in their cruelty. I am disgusted by the Calgary Stampede and everything it represents. I am embarrassed to live in a country where animal cruelty is a touted as a tourist attraction. I will do my part in ensuring that I tell everyone I know about the practices of your event.
If you dont like the calgary stampede, don’t go, leave the people who do to enjoy it, and quit complaining.
Your amazing
Very well Said !!
happy to know I live in a world where at least 1% can feel the same as I do
goodon you!!!
Oh look at that poor terrified little calf…drool flying from it’s mouth, tongue out. How can we do this and call it entertainment? I am ashamed to be human sometimes.
Obviously you haven’t been around a lot of stock in your life, have you?
The drool is totally normal and the look in that calfs eye is, “I’m not sure what’s goin’ on here, but if I get a chance I’ll be gettin’ my licks in.”
I’ve been around lots of stock in my life. Just because you have rodeo-blindness, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to close our eyes.
TRY to remember, this is a prey species. Scare them, and they run. Typical rodeo-lover. It’s FUN to watch their struggles!
Dumb comment of the day, Aqualung. “I’ll be gettin’ my licks in”. Yeah, sure, bud. Calves are man-eaters. riiiight.
ah, go eat a burger!
I did, thanks.
The only thing that beats this for cruelty was throwing the Christians to the lions…. and we don’t do that anymore. Do unto others….as you would be done to.
What an absolute exaggeration.
What a bunch of pansies!
Is that the best insult you can muster? You don’t like pansies, I take it?
Here’s another CBC idiocy. The announcer said, during the calf-roping, “The calf just races out of the chute, running as hard as he can!”
Actually, the TV coverage clearly shows a guy SHOVING the calf out of the chute.
Guess we’re not supposed to notice that.
Pathetic, y’all.
Apparently West Coast sunshine softens your brain. I am a Vegetarian and understand where meat comes from. These calves a experiencing fewer traumas than the typical feeder steer. They have not been branded, castrated and slated for a feedlot YET. Then all they have to look forward to is a shot in the head from a bolt gun and ……………… and off to your dinner plate.
Get a grip. There are more important issues to bitch about.
And those issues would be? These calves are bred to be flighier, therefore, more stressed. Interesting, you don’t eat meat, so therefore where it comes from is of no issue to you? I’d like humanity to start acting more like humans, not animals, myself.
And I’m not a vegan, and I’m from Ontario. You know? You might have heard of it. Where the money flows from.
I’m sorry, I guess I should have tried to be more articulate.
All I was trying to do was show my disdain in as few words as possible as I know there is no middle ground on this issue.
Attitudes like that represent all that is wrong in our world. Another reason why we must stop these disgusting events.
Mayor Nenshi to Mayor Watts:
STOP ALLOWING SHARK FIN SOUP IN YOUR RESTAURANTS!
What a bunch of hippocrates!