When Gordon Lightfoot wrote the Railway Trilogy in 1967, Canada was celebrating 100 years since Confederation. The song acknowledged the magnitude of our country, and the heroic effort required to bind it into a nation.
“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run. When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun,” Lightfoot wrote.
The song was both a lament for a disappearing frontier and a celebration of the industrious ambition that transformed the landscape and built a country.
It is no coincidence that the first rodeos and Wild West shows began around the same time the railroad companies were busy, as Lightfoot would say, “laying down tracks and tearing up the trails.” Buffalo Bill Cody’s first Wild West Show was held in 1883 — just two years before the Last Spike was hammered home.
Like Lightfoot’s song, the early rodeos and Wild West shows acknowledged that times were changing.
The predicted demise of frontier life, and the urbanization of Canada, has come true. With 80 per cent of Canadians living in urban areas, rodeo events and agricultural exhibitions like those hosted by the Calgary Stampede are just as relevant today as they were a century ago. Rodeos provide an opportunity for urban Canadians to reconnect with agriculture and livestock, and to meet other citizens — like farmers and ranchers — that they aren’t likely to meet at any other time or place of the year.
Unfortunately, some urbanites rally against rodeo events. Egged on by activist organizations like the Vancouver Humane Society, they position themselves as champions of animal rights and animal welfare, but the facts don’t support the claim. Compared to other equine sports, rodeo events have some of the highest standards in animal welfare and lowest injury rates and fatalities.
Independent animal science experts, like the University of Calgary’s Dr. Ed Pajor and the University of Colorado’s Dr. Temple Grandin, can attest to the work that has been done to measure and manage animal welfare at rodeo events.
The Calgary Humane Society randomly monitors the Calgary Stampede grounds and ensures the Alberta Animal Protection Act is upheld.
But even though the Vancouver Humane Society knows all this — they know the rodeo events are statistically safer than the thoroughbred races that take place at Vancouver’s Hastings Park racetrack; they know the Calgary event is monitored by the Calgary Humane Society; they know the Animal Protection Act is enforced; they know Calgary Stampede is a leader in animal welfare research — they still protest.
Why?
Money is certainly a factor...
Graeme Menzies is the author of The Rodeo Guide for City Slickers.
No comments:
Post a Comment