‘You don’t need to go to the rodeo to enjoy the Stampede’: Protesters call for end to rodeo, chuckwagon events

Animal rights activists protested rodeo and chuckwagon events at the Calgary Sunday afternoon. (Jordany Kanygin, CTV Calgary)

A group of animal rights activists protested outside the Stampede grounds Sunday, calling out the Stampede for what they say is animal cruelty.

Alexandra Pester, a criminal lawyer and staff lawyer at Animal Justice, Canada’s leading animal law organization, joined in the protest with advocates from the Calgary animal rights effort and The Daisy Foundation to “tell the Stampede it’s time to put an end to rodeo events and chuckwagon events.”

“These events cause distress, fear and pain to animals and nearly annually cause death.”

Pester said that despite the best efforts of the Stampede to address animal welfare, it’s not working.

"Last year, was a particularly deadly year," she said. “Three horses died as a result of their forced participation in the chuckwagon race and one young steer had his neck snapped leading to his death during a steer wrestling competition.

“Year after year, the Calgary Stampede announces new welfare measures around animal monitoring or animal safety precautions that they say are being taken and yet year after year, we see animals die at these events.

“I think that really illustrates the inherent risk and cruelty that occurs at these events,” she added. “And how there’s no amount of animal welfare reform that can happen that can spare animals their lives during these events.”

Pester said that she grew up in Calgary, attended Stampede as a child -- and that there’s lots of other ways to enjoy it without rodeo events.

“The rodeo doesn’t have to exist for the Stampede to thrive and bring people into this city and in fact, without the rodeo, the Stampede would really show the world what kind of people Calgarians are.”

With files from CTV’s Jordan Kanygin