Time to chuck out the chucks and the bronc bustin'
Naomi Lakritz, Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, July 11, 2008
C'mon, Calgary Stampede. It's time to move into the 21st century. And in this century, we should be enlightened enough to stop sacrificing animals for the sake of entertainment.
A horse was euthanized at the Stampede on Wednesday night after being injured in the chuckwagon races. Every time this happens, the old myths are trotted out as a reason for perpetuating this kind of thing.
The first myth is that it's part of our western heritage. The fact is chuckwagon races are part of the Stampede's tradition, but not Alberta's history. Guy Weadick originated the chucks, but they didn't exist in the world of real ranchers. In the decade that I've worked at the Herald, I have been involved with numerous historic projects that required substantial amounts of research in the Herald's own archives as well as poring over the diaries, letters and journals of early Calgary settlers. Reams were written about ranching, but in no newspaper article, letter, editorial or journal entry have I run across mention of ranch hands having chuckwagon races.The races are pure artifice, a construct created solely for show. Weadick was an American entrepreneur looking to cash in on the popularity of Wild West shows in the style of Buffalo Bill Cody, and he thought Calgary would be a good place for one. He instituted the chuckwagon races in 1923 in hopes of boosting attendance during a fiscal slump.
The Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association claims the races grew out of a legend about cowboys rushing to the saloon when they had finished their chores. Sounds charming, but it'll have to remain a myth. Saloons were in towns, and ranches were miles out on the range, hardly within convenient driving distance for happy hour.
The second myth is that the horses love being in the chuckwagon races. Since the only talking horse known to mankind was the fictitious Mr. Ed, there is no way to know if the horses love it or hate it.
"Yes, horses like to run. Given an open field or a one-on-one relationship with a rider, they love to run. They have a natural inclination to play, to frolic. But taking that and turning it into machinery that's killing them is false," says Michael Alvarez-Toye, a spokesman for the Calgary Animal Rights Coalition.
Even if you concede that horses might like running around the track, pulling chuckwagons, that doesn't mean the horses have volunteered to commit suicide so humans may be entertained.
Lindsey Galloway, the Stampede's senior manager for corporate communications, says everything possible is done to ensure the animals don't get hurt, but that there can be no guarantees whenever animals are performing -- whether it's "trick riding, chuckwagon racing, the rodeo, horse racing or a dog show."
The Calgary Humane Society does not condone the chuckwagon races or the rodeo.
"We do not believe animals should be used for entertainment when they're put at risk," says humane society spokeswoman Cheryl Wallach.
In 1986, the worst year by far, 12 horses died of injuries. Last year, three horses died as the result of a collision between two chuckwagons. In 2006, two horses died on opening night. In 2005, Calgarians were horrified by the deaths of nine horses that plunged from a bridge into the Bow River after startling while being driven through the city.
Down the road, will the Stampede evolve into an event in which animals are not used for entertainment, as the Cloverdale, B.C., rodeo has done in four events?
Galloway says that while the Stampede respects Cloverdale's decision, "we think they went too far." He says there are no plans to change things at Stampede because "we do not see a public outcry." Instead, the Stampede sees tremendous support for its events.
"The reality is Calgarians love to come to the rodeo, the chuckwagon races and the agricultural events," Galloway says, adding that 75 per cent of Stampede-goers are Calgarians.
However, on Sept, 15, 1905, a Herald editorial, deploring a bronc busting exhibition staged for Gov. Gen. Earl Grey's Alberta visit, asked: "Why is this sort of wild west business persisted in where it is no part of the regular establishment? It is this idea that the settled portions of the west must utterly disregard if the eastern idea of the wild and woolly west is to be dissipated. . . . It ought to be discouraged."
That was 103 years ago; we should have moved far beyond that by now.