CALGARY – National animal law organization Animal Justice is calling on authorities to investigate the Calgary Stampede for illegal animal cruelty after its first animal death of 2019. A horse was killed on Monday after being forced to complete in a dangerous chuckwagon race.
Horses are killed in Stampede chuckwagon races nearly every single year. According to tracking done by the Vancouver Humane Society, 100 animals have been killed in Stampede rodeo events since 1986. Yet no rodeo event or participant has faced prosecution in Canada since 1950—nearly 70 years.
“It’s time for law enforcement to finally crack down on animal cruelty at rodeo events. This latest heartbreaking horse death must be fully investigated,” said lawyer Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice. “It’s illegal under Alberta’s provincial animal welfare laws to cause distress to animals, and rodeo events are not above the law. Predictably, animals die and suffer serious injuries nearly every year in chuckwagon races and other dangerous rodeo events at the Stampede. This crisis of cruelty urgently needs to be addressed by law enforcement and the courts.”
Rodeo events are opposed by virtually every animal protection organization in the world because they subject animals to fear, pain, suffering, distress, and the risk of serious injury and death.
Rodeo is considered so cruel that it has been banned in jurisdictions around the world, including the City of Vancouver, the United Kingdom, and many American states and cities.
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For more information, contact:
Camille Labchuk
Executive Director
[email protected]
