Groups plan demonstration at NRE event
BY GLORIA J. KATCH Special to the VOICE
Watching rodeos where bareback riders are being bucked and hanging on for life and limb gets an audiences’s adrenalin pumping and fearing for the cowboys’ safety, when in actuality the crowds should be more afraid for the horse.
At least that’s the stance taken by many animal rights groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and At War For Animals Niagara (AWFAN), which are collaborating to protest this year’s Ultimate Rodeo. The event is set to take place at the Niagara Regional Exhibition on Aug. 31, starting at 7 PM.
Caitlin Hamm, from Welland, has recently been chosen to represent PETA, noted about 100 people are interested in attending the protest, according to the AWFAN’s Facebook page, but she is not sure everyone will make it.
Hamm said rodeos are advertised as “family fun,” but in actuality teach youth and teenagers to have unhealthy relationship with animals. She maintains that all animals need to be treated with respect, and not just the ones that are domesticated, or cute and cuddly. This lack of regard for all animals leads to a “big double standard,” she said. For example, how would a dog owner feel if he saw his pet running in fear, and then a rope fly around his neck, yanking him to the ground and his feet tightly bond? Animal activists ask, so why is this acceptable for a calf?
The problem with rodeos, said Hamm, is that the animals are agitated to perform, and so bucking straps are used to jab a bull’s genitalia, spurs are used to dig in to horses’ sides, and in some countries electric prods are still used to shock a horse into moving faster.
While people may think horses have thick skins, they actually have a lot of sensitive nerve endings, which is why they are able to detect flies on their backs and tails, notes Hamm. Making animals act aggressively doesn’t help humans develop a healthy attitude toward them.
Obstacle courses like barrel races require the horse to turn sharply, and many of them slam into a wall and are injured. Stage coach races have been banned in some places, because horses were crashing into each other. Once a horse is injured, it is often put down because it can’t perform anymore, or at the level required by its owners to entertain people, she said.
“These are blood spectacles and not very civilized when you think about it.”
Even if rodeo owners and circuses treated their animals well, the whole idea of having animals bred to be entertainers means that this is their sole purpose. If these animals don’t do well in their training or conditioning, they will be put down, she said.
The life of an animal as a rodeo or country and western star means they are often transported in large, hot, containers from place to place. They don’t allow for enough movement, and it’s not comfortable or even close to the natural environment animals require, said Hamm.
While PETA’s stance is about animal welfare, ethical treatment and safety, one might say AWFAN’s “speciest” philosophy, which refers to the discrimination of animals based on their species, is higher up the evolutionary ladder.
They believe animals are viewed as property, and have no more rights than a table or a chair.
“You can buy an animal, bring it home, kill it and eat it, and nobody will do much about it,” said AWFAN’s spokesperson Adam Stirr.
AWFAN’s philosophy is about respecting all living things, and any living being should have the same weight in value as a human being.
“Animals need protection and care, and we have to admit, the way we treat animals is wrong,” said Stirr.
Those who breed animals are using them as a “tool,” which is for human exploitation and money, rather than protection. Stirr said the “speciest philosophy,” doesn’t like to refer to animals as such, but as human and non-human persons.
People don’t realize or recognize that all animals have good and bad days, moods and feelings. Some may recognize it in their pets, but don’t extend this same concept to other animals. Each species has its own intelligence, which Stirr believes is often far superior to human intelligence.
AWFAN was formed about two years ago in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and has since made headlines protesting the horse and buggy carriages there. While they may treat their animals according to acceptable standards, Stirr said the animals are just there for entertainment, and reinforces the idea that animals are a commodity. Stirr said he isn’t against them having a business, and said they should use electric horse and buggy carriages for tourists, because in this “modern day and age” horses are not necessary.
“That’s not considered rescuing animals,” he said. There have been incidents in the past where horses have been spooked on a busy street, and there is always a risk of something happening, he said.
While the Ultimate Rodeo is a fundraiser for the Diabetes Foundation, Stirr suggests finding other ways to fundraise than exploiting animals. His group protested the Shriners Circus last year for similar reasons.
AWFAN’s website notes that Ribfest and Lobsterfest were protested because of the way the animals are killed for human consumption. Stirr admits there are many people who think that AWFAN is “just crazy.” When asked if AFWAN’s philosophy was adopted from First Nations people, Stirr said it wasn’t, although he has had several people tell him they have similar viewpoints.
Stirr wasn’t always a believer in speciest philosophy. When he was in his early 20s, he worked in a slaughter house, where he shot cows in the head and slit their throats on a daily basis. When he started dating his girlfriend, who had a cat, he started making connections to it, and started looking at other animals in the same way. He began looking into animal rights, and not long after ditched his job. He and his girlfriend became vegans, which led to activism and a lifelong devotion to save animals and the planet. Now he drives truck for a living and spends his time monitoring AFWAN’s website and organizing protest rallies.
Setting up in the rain for a weekend show in Grand Valley, Ross Millar, the president of Rodeo Management Group, said his company has been working with Diabetes Canada for a number of years. Since the non-profit collaborates with the rodeo on several shows, Millar said he is not sure how much money is donated. Currently, there are about 120 cowgirls and cowboys in the show and they are all competing on events to chalk up points for the championships to be held in New Market in the near future, which he said makes the shows even more exciting now.
Millar recalls the animal rights groups protesting for the last two or three years at the Niagara Regional Exhibition. In the past, he has offered to take protesters behind the scenes to show them the equipment they use, how the animals are treated, and to see the show, but they always decline, he noted. The changes in the rodeo over the years, most likely due to protests, has improved the bucking strap and spurs.
The bucking or flank strap now is made of sheepskin and it just “tickles the skin,” Millar said. Spurs are ground down to have flat, not sharp edges. The containers that animals are transported in have more air flow, and are padded so that animals don’t hurt themselves if they get spooked. Millar said a bucking horse can cost up to $70,000 to purchase, so it’s not something he wants to harm. “Sometimes, I worry more about the horse than the rider,” a sentiment that would have some common ground with animal rights activists and speciests alike.
Miller doesn’t understand the large number of people living in cities that have dogs cooped up in apartments, and only get walked once a day. “My dog has a plenty of acres to roam around on, he said.
Millar is a former member of Equestrian Canada, and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA), which inspects rodeos to determine if there are any violations in animal welfare and treatment. What appears to be paradoxical, said Millar, is that the OSPCA has some 100 or more inspectors, but many of them didn’t know much about animals in the rodeo, so he took them behind the scenes and taught them about the equipment and what distress signs to look for in animals. He said the OPCA has an “open book” policy with him, and notes they usually inspect about one in every three Ultimate Rodeo performances.
While Millar doesn’t profess to be a speciest, he does believe in preserving animal welfare and protection. The rodeo has eliminated stagecoach racing because of accidents. They also don’t have any calf-roping or calves at all in their show, he pointed out.
In the two-hour show, Millar said there are Bronco and Bull Riding, Pole Bending, and Ladies Barrel Racing, and adds, “It’s pretty exciting.” In some rural communities, they also let children ride the sheep around for fun.
Millar is doing two shows this weekend before he rolls into the Niagara Regional Exhibition on Aug. 31, where there will likely be protesters and picket signs at the gates.
He invited the Voice to attend the rodeo to inspect the equipment and animals.
“I’m quite proud of the show.”
