CANADIAN RODEO BANS TIMED EVENTS

Cloverdale Rodeo to stop calf-roping event after calf's death Saturday Following the death of a calf in Saturday's calf roping event, the Cloverdale Rodeo Association announced today that it will no longer include roping events in its annual Surrey fair. "We felt as a board of agricultural people - as an association of agricultural people - that we didn't want this to ever happen again," association spokesperson Laura Ballance said of the death. So starting next year, the rodeo, one of the five largest in Canada and a mainstay of the Victoria Day weekend, will no longer include calf-roping, team roping, steer wrestling or wild-cow milking. However, because of that decision the rodeo will no longer be sanctioned by the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA), which insists that all sanctioned rodeos include roping events. What that means to rodeo participants, Ballance said, is that when they win events at Cloverdale in future, they will no longer be able to accrue points towards an over-all Canadian title....
Circle the wagons: Lorne Gunter on the animal-rights threat to Canadian rodeos he Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair in Surrey, B.C. bills itself as “a celebration of western lifestyle.” Well, no longer. After a calf had to be euthanized Saturday following the roping competition, organizers of the 119-year-old event capitulated to pressure from animal-rights groups (and its own increasingly urbanized, politically correct board) by banning calf-roping, team roping, steer wrestling and wild cow milking starting next year. Cloverdale’s directors hailed their decision as “progressive” and “with the times.” But in reality, it is further evidence that as Canadian society moves away from its rural roots, we are falsely romanticizing and anthropomorphizing animals. We wish we could blame the rodeo’s decision entirely on animal rights activists, some of whom tried to disrupt last weekend’s event by forcing their way onto the rodeo infield to block competition. But the truth is, rodeo’s sanctioning bodies have caused some of their sport’s own problems. Just as some overly concerned pet lovers have started referring to their pets by the politically correct term “non-human companions,” rodeo organizations have — with an eye to deflecting criticism — taken to calling rodeo stock “animal athletes.” On the surface, this may seem to give the bulls, horses, steers and calves used in rodeo a higher level of respect. But by reinforcing the notion that the livestock are active participants with a stake in the competition, this terminology feeds rodeo’s opponents’ argument that the animals understand what is going on at rodeos and feel distress from it. Cowboys and stock contractors who supply animals to rodeos already do their utmost to protect the livestock. Most major rodeos feature an animal protection society officer whose job it is to ensure no animal is mistreated. As people who handle animals for a living, too, most riders, ropers and contractors understand better than those who would shut them down what the stock can and cannot tolerate without injury or duress....
No rodeo ban here - Edmonton Local rodeo organizers are bucking a suggestion the productions should be banned because they’re cruel to animals. “We have heard that extreme view at some time or another over the years, but I think everyone appreciates when they come down and see that the animals are being treated well,” Jim Oscroft, chairman of the St. Albert Kinsmen Rainmaker Rodeo and Exhibition, told Sun Media today. The rodeo runs this weekend. The Vancouver Humane Society has been leading a charge against rodeos, and was successful recently in convincing the City of Vancouver to ban the events. Peter Fricker, a spokesman for the Vancouver Humane Society, said other rodeos and cities like Edmonton – where the Canadian Finals Rodeo is held each year – should consider similar bans....
Rodeo ban renews Stampede criticism Buoyed by a B.C. rodeo's startling ban on controversial livestock events, Calgary animal rights activists vow to ramp up protests in July urging the Stampede to follow suit. Rodeo professionals, however, say the Calgary Stampede rodeo is one of the last bastions of western tradition, and yanking calf roping and steer wrestling from the program -- as officials did in Cloverdale, B.C. -- won't happen any time soon. "We don't see a lot of push for change in Alberta," said Dale Leschiutta, president of the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association in Edmonton. "Calgary represents a truly western lifestyle, so rodeo lovers would be very reluctant to changes like this one at the Stampede." Calgary Stampede officials say dropping or modifying any contentious events from this year's rodeo is not on the agenda. "We will continue to monitor all events, but at this point we don't anticipate changing or modifying or eliminating any rodeo event," said Doug Fraser, a Stampede spokesman....
Educating fans key to rodeo survival Calf roping part of everyday life on ranches: Jasper Rodeo is a celebration of a way of life. A life that’s hard to understand for people who’ve never experienced a working ranch, Quesnel Rodeo Club president Ray Jasper said. Many people in Quesnel have grown up in cowboy country or attended local rodeos and witnessed how animals are treated during everyday ranching activities and in rodeos. Saturday at Cloverdale, a calf was put down after it tripped and broke an ankle during a tie-down roping go-round. After, it forced rodeo organizers to become the first Canadian pro rodeo to ban tie-down roping, team roping, cowboy cow milking and steer wrestling, a wave of disbelief swept through Quesnel’s rodeo community. “The groups that are against rodeo may view this as a toehold or foot in the door if we as a rodeo community don’t take this as very serious,” Jasper said. “The only way we can combat it is through education, educating people as to what actually goes on.” Jasper connects rodeo very closely to a way of life – ranch life. “In a ranch these animals have to be roped and branded to protect ownership or to be doctored,” Jasper said. “Concerning the issue of roping as cruelty to animals – it’s a working part of a ranch and without it a ranch can’t exist.”....