I'll also concede, but..... I have met the drivers, I have met the horses. I have seen how they are treated. These horses "live" to run and are treated like Kings.
Chuckwagon races must go, say activists
- Thread starter mentalfloss
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I'll also concede, but..... I have met the drivers, I have met the horses. I have seen how they are treated. These horses "live" to run and are treated like Kings.
Of that I have no doubt bud. I'm not trying to disparage the trainers, drivers or the sport.
I'm just trying to keep it honest. The majority horses have to be broke to harnessed, or saddled.
and as for the calf roping and wrestling..... how many here that oppose these aspects of the Rodeo have actually raised a calf? I have, and I played with it, and wrestled with it. When the "little" bugger hit 5-6 months..well... let's just say a 400 pound bull calf doesn't lose very often...lol
This happens every year, doesn't it? Is it really news?
Taken seriously by whom? I do some pretty dumb stuff at times, in others
opinions, & I've friends that do the same even in my opinion! Those that
matter to them accept them and what they do, and those that don't accept
them don't really matter. I know I'm looking at things on a small scale, but....
I hate to say it, but (as a marketable commodity) horses (most horses) just
aren't worth the feed they eat at this point in time. Most prairie abattoirs for
horses that I'm aware of have closed down in the last couple of years due to
Animal Rights Groups (European ones) and their influence.
Instead of being sold for the meat market (Europe & Asia), the herds have been
culled back and most horses (compared to even just a few years back) don't
even get the chance to be born. Hell, at the auctions, you can pick up a horse
for well under (untrained, etc...) $200, and it costs more to feed them than they
are worth, unless they're a pet for the well-to-do or the rodeo industry, etc....
If it costs more to feed & butcher a horse that it's worth at sale, they won't even
become dog food. They'll just get put down.
The Animal Rights Groups might just save the horses right out of existance
without realizing it.
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There's a lot of animal rights stuff going on now about dogs being seatbelted into cars. I might agree - provided they can give my dog opposable thumbs and lessons on how to release his own belt.
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I should have said Calgary-a city of over a million people has a lot of politics/does a lot of business with a lot of people and those same politics/business connections will assure that barbarisms like the chuckwagon wars will come to an end.
As I said you'll still be that kind of racing in backwater places like Lethbridge and Williams Lake.
Horses have been an expensive anachronism since my Dad was a horse logger back before WW2-perhaps society is poorer for I'll grant you that.
This was the very point I was trying to make earlier. You can only count on so many adoptive owners to come forward to assume the feed and care burden of all these horses currently being used in various entertainment.
Eliminating the entertainment eliminates the business aspect and will also eliminate the horses themselves long term.
Barker et-al would be much happier when the only horse available for viewing and inter-action will be the poor thing in a zoo.
Hell this country was built and sustained on the labour provided by horses until the advent of steam. I guess those folks were all guilty of animal abuse and should have shouldered the plows and threshers themselves.
Simple: you tell him there is someone like Billy Boy waiting at the finish line to be dipped in s$it.
Here's something else to consider; who's going to tell all those Mennonites and Amish they can no longer risk a horse hooked to a buggy out on a major highway shoulder heading into town where many of them are killed every year due to conflict with automotive vehicular traffic.
Those folks routinely buy up retired trotters and pacers at auctions and use 'em until they drop. Have oftentimes seen them left standing outside a city business or feedlots in all weather.
Where's Barker's outrage at that treatment?????
Those folks routinely buy up retired trotters and pacers at auctions and use 'em until they drop. Have oftentimes seen them left standing outside a city business or feedlots in all weather.
Where's Barker's outrage at that treatment?????
These links lead to Calgary area businesses that I've used in the past few months-innovative 21st century operations that have nothing to do with 19th century savagery.
It's the interests of places like this that are being harmed and that is going to change-you can bet on it.
Silk Road Spice Merchant
Knifewear - Knife Sharpening and Japanese Chef/Kitchen Knives - Calgary & Kelowna Canada
It's the interests of places like this that are being harmed and that is going to change-you can bet on it.
Silk Road Spice Merchant
Knifewear - Knife Sharpening and Japanese Chef/Kitchen Knives - Calgary & Kelowna Canada
Thanx for the clarification. Not sure the relevance. Who pulls the Chuck Wagons?
Obviously roads should be closed to traffic to prevent such tragedies.
Eliminate ritualized animal torture? Oh we couldn't do that. After all it's a tradition, just like bullfighting, bear baiting, and dog fighting are traditions.
The activists are nuts. let them go live off the land, with nothing but what the plants provide. No chemically produced yarns for their clothing; no animal products to eat or wear; and no fair benefiting from the use of any of those products by others. I suspect that the vast majority would be dead in less than 6 months.
What does yarn and chemicals have to do with recreational horse racing that kills 2 horses every year? Are you suggesting that somehow the chuckwagon races actually makes synthetic polymers? Is that why they run like that?
Next time that you see these activists happily protesting away and plying their message - do a quick assessment of the number of leather belts, shoes and jackets among the do-gooders... I like to roll down the window and ask them why they choose to support the barbaric practice of adorning themselves with the skin of the creatures that they are protecting.
Come to think of it; I've yet to get an answer from any of 'em
In the same vein I'm wondering why all the AGW protestors are busy posting tripe here instead of fighting forest fires in Colorado and Washington? Or did I miss something and mother nature's CO2 emissions are good for the environment?
To write this off as ambiguous activism or synonymous with some crazy PETA endeavour is a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion, though I do see where you guys are coming from.
The only real compelling argument would be to show that these horses would live a much worse life if they weren't racing. I think one pundit on Power and Politics mentioned something about them being 'lined up to be killed' if they were not being used for the track, but I have yet to see any evidence about how they would have a much higher likelihood of pain and suffering.
The only real compelling argument would be to show that these horses would live a much worse life if they weren't racing. I think one pundit on Power and Politics mentioned something about them being 'lined up to be killed' if they were not being used for the track, but I have yet to see any evidence about how they would have a much higher likelihood of pain and suffering.
Ahh, the old hypocrisy gambit. Since neither of us are perfect, then we must be the same! That about it?
This line of thinking is absurd. It is an attempt to demonstrate that no one measures up to ideal perfection, and therefore we all share the same shades of gray morality. People can oppose the worst, and most unnecessary animal cruelties without being full vegans and without a month long depression over stepping on a bug.
Suggesting that people who oppose animal cruelty are hypocrites because they have some leather on their shoes, is like suggesting that anyone who spanks their child, has no right to complain about parents beating their children to death.