Reporter Finds Different Story at Stampede

Opinion: What's the beef with Stampede roping, anyway?
By Jen Gerson, Calgary Herald July 11, 2010 Comments (5)

As they were setting up for the Calgary Stampede a few weeks ago, I got a taste of an annual Stampede event of a more sombre variety.

Signs and PETA pamphlets in hand, eight protesters lined a park on 17th Avenue S.W. in their attempt to ban the rodeo practice of calf roping. As I asked one about the basis of his beliefs, he looked at me and asked: "Has anyone ever told you you look just like Maria Sharapova?"
I dropped my pen, arched my eyebrow and looked in the activist's doe-like eyes, noting his long hair and hand-stitched linen vest.

Filed under the things thought, but not said: "Oh buddy, there are right trees and there are wrong trees. Right now, you're barking up one of the wrong ones."

Whether you agree with the man's stance or not, you have to respect someone who has cultivated such a diehard passion for un-winnable fights and impossible pursuits.

However, I took a decidedly less sympathetic view of the Vancouver Humane Society, which has again launched an anti-calf-roping tirade without having bothered to actually visit Stampede or talk to the calf ropers or cattle ranchers. Instead, they've told me they're basing their opinions on the reports of activists. Reliable. Read More

Unlike most animal rights activists and vegan promoters this reporter actually went to the Calgary Stampede to see for herself if the calf-roping seemed as cruel as the protesters were claiming. Unfortunately for the animal rights crowd, their crazy claims didn’t match up with reality again. This is a case study for all of us in animal agriculture. A positive outcome is almost always achieved when we are able to actually show the public what we do and why we do it. That’s why it’s so important that we are out there telling our story, we can’t let others do it for us. This is also why I always tell consumers that if they have a question about agriculture that they should ask a farmer, not Google. We are the most direct and trusted source of information about food production so we need to be available to answer the questions and show consumers first hand what we do.

Calgary Stampede Sponsors Targeted

Animal rights activists target Stampede sponsors
Updated: Sat Jul. 03 2010 15:21:25
ctvcalgary.ca

With the Calgary Stampede less than a week away, animal rights activists have launched their first protest. This time they have a different target: Stampede sponsors.

Around a dozen protestors gathered at Tompkins Park, along 17th Avenue Southwest
The protesters say they are now targeting major corporations that sponsor the rodeo, including Bell Canada which had been sponsoring the steer wrestling event.

The group, called the "The Calgary Animal Rights Meetup Group" is urging Canadians to boycott Bell.

Jeremy Thomas from the group says, "Every year animals are hurt and killed and scared out of their minds for the sake of entertainment, not to mention the ones that get killed in the practice sessions." Read More

The Calgary Stampede has been a target of anti-rodeo animal rights activists for some time now. This year’s strategy is to protest the supporters of the rodeo. Even though a dozen protesters will do little to stop an historic rodeo that draws thousands of visitors to their city every year, it’s important that rodeo and animal agriculture take advantage of events like these to educate the public about what it is we do.

Alleged Horse Shocking at CNFR

Group targets CNFR
By TOM MORTON - Star-Tribune staff writer Posted: Saturday, June 19, 2010 1:30 am

An animal rights group posted a video on YouTube on Thursday showing three scenes of a man covertly shocking what appears to be two different horses to force them to buck during Thursday's performance of the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper.

"They claim [horses] are born to buck," said Steve Hindi, president of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, or SHARK.

"They are not," Hindi said.

The video appears to show a young man wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeve tan shirt and black hat with his hands on the horses' necks and pulling them quickly away.

In all scenes, he immediately tucks a device under his unbuttoned sleeve.

In the first and second scenes, the slow-motion versions show the man holding in his left hand what Hindi says is a Miller Manufacturing Hot-Shot Power-mite electric prod. Read More


If you watch the video it’s pretty clear that the guy is holding a handheld electric prod. What is not clear is whether or not he is actually using it. SHARK is claiming that the prod is being used on the horses, but there is no evidence of that. Those things don’t work on contact, the button has to be pushed and we can’t tell from the video if that is happening. So unless this animal rights group can provide evidence that it is actually being used rather than just having it available then they shouldn’t be accusing anyone of anything.