yea...
welcome back Victor. I missed you too.
Thanks for the kind words, I know you have a fondness for the proceedings in Calgary during the month of July, you grew up here so I can understand that.
When you speak like you do, it pains me to have to correct you.
http://www.animalvoices.ca/stampede wrote:
No matter how you view it, the facts are brutal, and the animals are made to suffer.
Calf-roping causes tears in neck musculature, crushed trachea, broken ribs and more. Calves are encouraged to run out of the chute through some tail twisting... So far-on the first day of this year's stampede, one calf has had its neck broken.
Bull-riding and bronco-busting occur through the inducement of these animals to buck and twist their bodies in a desperate attempt to 'unseat' the 'irritant' on its back — through the use of hand-held cattle prods, or 'hotshots', that cause an intense pain as the electricity zaps it, just prior to the chute opening for it to go rushing out... Injuries include the hyper-extending of their backs, broken bones and limbs, dislocations, etc, including a few years ago during the finals, a momentous spectacle of watching as the bull somehow got its leg caught in the bars of a chute, causing to be shattered, and the bull having to be 'executed' behind a screen in front of the audience.
One could, in fact, list every event, and with them all of the problems the animals face, and the injuries that occur, but time being somewhat limited we won't at this time. Suffice to say, there is much to be condemned within the rodeo industry, and nothing to be applauded.
The same applies to the chuckwagon races, where it is not an uncommon thing to learn (in confidence) that certain teams give their horses a mixture known as a 'milkshake' — a sugar and baking soda blend, designed to get their hearts to beat faster, with the result being that they run faster... and in so doing cause some horses to have heart attacks, and to die. In 2002 6 horses died during the chucks, some of them from heart attacks and some from collisions. In 2001 a horse died from a heart attack during the chucks...
Thanks for your valued input.