Opinion

BULL riding is back in Winnipeg. After Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Canada cancelled its event at Canada Life Centre last year (downtown Winnipeg is not zoned for agricultural events) it has now found a new home to display its frantic bucking bulls, at Red River Exhibition Park. A change in location though, does not mean a change in concern for the bulls being harmed and exploited.

Bull riding puts animals at great risk of stress, injury and even death, all for corporate profit and unnecessary entertainment. This travelling show should not be welcomed in Winnipeg, or anywhere.

A number of animal advocacy groups are voicing concern about PBR’s Bull’s Night Out event happening today. The Winnipeg Humane Society is urging anyone considering attending to “think about the animal’s perspective before attending events like this.”

In a statement on its website, the group explains these bulls “are selectively bred to be especially sensitive to negative stimulus. A rider on their back mimics the experience of a predator jumping onto them. In the arena, bulls feel under attack and buck to fight for their life.”

It’s hard to comprehend how anyone could find it fun to watch frightened animals, but bull riding remains somewhat popular. This is likely due in-part to the way the animals are presented: as strong, willing participants in an equal and entertaining battle of man versus beast. PBR goes as far as to call the bulls “athletes,” stating that they are treated “with as much respect as, if not more than, the human athletes who ride them.”

Red River Exhibition Park even advertises the event as featuring “mean bulls” and “brave cowboys.”

Of course, this type of rhetoric ignores the issue of choice and consent — of which the humans are granted, while the animals are not. “The idea that bulls are ‘athletes’ only serves to dress up animal exploitation in the false mask of consensual entertainment,” explains Dr. Jason Hannan, an associate professor in the department of rhetoric, writing and communications at the University of Winnipeg. “Rodeo bulls are ‘athletes’ in the same sense that hostages are ‘houseguests.’ The rodeo industry is resorting to Orwellian language to invert reality.”

A 2017 study published by the American Veterinary Medical Association found that, “bucking bulls were more likely than non-bucking bulls to develop horn and sinus disorders and musculoskeletal disorders of the vertebral region and pelvic limbs.”

While bull riders know and consent to the risks involved in what they are doing, the animals can’t. They are forced.

The animals are also forced to participate in these gruelling spectacles over and over, “continuously trailered and hauled unnaturally long distances across the U.S. and Canada, with little to no opportunity to graze or access any land or pasture,” adds the WHS. “They only know a life of parking lots, metal trailers, and loud stadiums.”

Along with the WHS, national animal law organization Animal Justice sent a letter last month to Manitoba’s chief veterinary officer, Dr. Scott Zaari, requesting the event in Winnipeg and one later in Brandon, be investigated for possible violations of Manitoba’s Animal Care Act and Canada’s Criminal Code, citing in-part the use of cruel spurs, flank straps and electric prods.

“The Criminal Code provides that every one commits an offence who ‘wilfully causes, or, being the owner, wilfully permits to be caused unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal or a bird’,” the groups write. “Any pain, suffering, or injury inflicted upon bulls as part of the ‘Bull’s Night Out’ event must be considered unnecessary, as the event exists for entertainment purposes only and takes place for no valid agricultural purpose.” Zaari’s office has not replied.

Local activist group Manitoba Animal Save is planning to protest the event. “We should all be concerned with events that seek to normalize and profit off overt abuse,” says MAS organizer, Danae Tonge. “No animal lover would want to support such an event once you look into the facts.” Concerned citizens are asked to join the group at 5:30 p.m. at the entrance of the park.

The use of animals for entertainment, especially that which forces them to endure stress, fear and potential injury and death, is exploitative, outdated, and as the WHS puts it, “has no place in our city in 2023.”

Jessica Scott-Reid is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist and animal advocate.