Time to end cruel rodeo events once and for all

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/07/2024 (553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In most ways, summer in Manitoba is cause for celebration – after months of frigid cold, many of us will enjoy lazy days at the beach, relax and soak up the sun at outdoor festivals, or spend time with friends and family at backyard barbecues.

Unfortunately, summer in the keystone province also means the return of our archaic and shameful rodeo season. Year after year, animals suffer injuries and distress – and some even die – all in the name of entertainment.

In communities across Manitoba, riders will jab horses and bulls with boots that have metal spurs on them. Flank straps will be fastened around the animals’ bodies, causing pain and discomfort in order to cause extreme and dangerous bucking. Terrified calves will be roped and tackled by grown men as crowds cheer. Drivers will compete in chuck wagon races — dangerous events which all too often turn deadly for horses. Children will be encouraged to chase and grab the tails, ears, and bodies of frightened piglets and calves in “scramble” events. The list goes on and on.

And if cruelty to animals wasn’t enough, it’s worth noting that these events can even prove dangerous to spectators. Earlier this month, a bull named Party Bus leapt over an arena fence at a rodeo in Oregon. The terrified animal ran through crowds of spectators, injuring at least three people.

Most animal injuries and distress at rodeos do not make the headlines. They may not even be apparent to folks watching in the stands. Last year, a spectator in Selkirk happened to capture a video of a horse in a bronc-riding event breaking his leg, collapsing, and thrashing in pain. There was nothing surprising or unpredictable about the injury – a foreseeable outcome of bronc riding, which is known to put horses at risk of injury and death. What was unusual was that it was caught on camera.

While the video caused significant public outcry, what happened next behind the scenes was even worse. The terrified horse was partially sedated and taken backstage on a skid steer loader, where he suffered a horrific and prolonged euthanasia.

Manitoba is the wild west when it comes to the use of animals in rodeos, with no legal standards governing which events are and are not acceptable. While it’s illegal to cause suffering, harm, or distress to animals, the Animal Care Act carves out an exemption for suffering, harm, and distress caused by an “accepted activity” such as agricultural uses of animals, fairs, or exhibitions. Since there are no regulatory standards for fairs and rodeos (the regulations reference guidelines for fairs that are so old they no longer appear to exist), animal suffering at rodeos must be “consistent with generally accepted practices” to be exempt from the law.

So who decides whether flank straps, calf roping, tackling baby animals, or kicking and jabbing animals with spurs are “generally accepted” in this province? Clearly not Manitobans, a growing number of whom view rodeo events as the cruel and unnecessary spectacles that they are. Canadawide, polling shows that 67 per cent of the public now oppose these events. Leaving the rodeo industry to decide what types of animal suffering are acceptable forms of entertainment is akin to the fox guarding the henhouse.

Sadly, the situation is equally dire in other prairie provinces. In response to a complaint filed by Animal Justice about a recent bull riding event in Saskatchewan, law enforcement authorities went so far as to suggest that flank straps – cruel devices banned in an increasing number of jurisdictions worldwide – are as harmless as “a ribbon loosely tied around” the paw of a kitten.

Getting with the times and enacting clear laws to ban the most inhumane rodeo practices doesn’t have to spell an end to summer fun in rural communities. It just means separating the wheat from the chaff and embracing traditions that show compassion for all participants – both human and animal alike. After all, “we’ve always done it this way” is no excuse to perpetuate traditions of animal cruelty.

Kaitlyn Mitchell is a Winnipeg-based lawyer and director of legal advocacy with Animal Justice. Brittany Semeniuk is a veterinary nurse and animal welfare consultant with the Winnipeg Humane Society.