4 Calgary Stampede horses die in 2015 chuckwagon races

seems excessive. They should stop these races

Many of those horses exist exclusively for this purpose and if the races are banned then the horses will become dog food.

It's a sad part of the business. A few hundred horses die every in horse racing but you rarely hear about that.

Your entertainment dollars are all that matters. God put animals here for our use and abuse!

These lefty-liberals already took away Cockfighting and Bear-baiting and Dogfighting and have already ruined Hollywood. The 1939 Erroll Flynn film, The Charge of the Light Brigade, purposely killed over two dozen horses with trip wire explosives and the same year, the movie "Jessie James" pushed 3 horses off a cliff (one horse, 3 takes). Now we have to make due to 'fake' CGI.

What's next?

Yeah I went to one of those chuckwagon races and they had to shoot one of the animals. Took all the fun out of it for me. But in the grand scheme of things, we should be more concerend about the way we treat food animals, which are slaughtered by the millions and have a shitty life up to boot.

This.

These animals are the superstars, and they are treated like such. They live absolutely fantastic lives; best barns and pastures, best feed, best medical care, many of them even have their own personalised music selection (not kidding). Even if they snap a leg and have to be put down at 5, they live a much better life than your average horse ever will.

Many of those horses exist exclusively for this purpose and if the races are banned then the horses will become dog food.

As they will if they break a leg anyway. And no more horses will be bred for this purpose, so they won't be turned into anything.

And here is the kind of food they are serving!

No they wouldn't. They are buried or cremated if a large enough facility is available. Much like medication for humans, medication used for pleasure and sport horses often render them inedible. This is especially so of the medications they use to kill the animal.

And they wont stop breeding them either. These horses are Thoroughbreds. They wont stop breeding Thoroughbreds just because you kill off one of the many equine sports where Thoroughbreds are used.

Also, what is better: To live a good life and die young, or to not have lived at all?

A guy I know (Ray Mitsuing), I'm friends with his family, drives Chuck Wagons. I haven't talked to him about it but his brothers have a love/practical useful animal approach to horses. Care for them with skill and they will do the job you have for them well. He finished in the middle of the pack in Calgary .

No they wouldn't. They are buried or cremated if a large enough facility is available. Much like medication for humans, medication used for pleasure and sport horses often render them inedible. This is especially so of the medications they use to kill the animal.

And they wont stop breeding them either. These horses are Thoroughbreds. They wont stop breeding Thoroughbreds just because you kill off one of the many equine sports where Thoroughbreds are used.

Also, what is better: To live a good life and die young, or to not have lived at all?


Well, there you go, no loss if they ban the chuckwagon races.

Hey, would could give horses a good life for a couple of years, then make them run across a mine field, bet on which ones make it. Better than not having lived at all, and all.

No they wouldn't. They are buried or cremated if a large enough facility is available. Much like medication for humans, medication used for pleasure and sport horses often render them inedible. This is especially so of the medications they use to kill the animal.

And they wont stop breeding them either. These horses are Thoroughbreds. They wont stop breeding Thoroughbreds just because you kill off one of the many equine sports where Thoroughbreds are used.

Also, what is better: To live a good life and die young, or to not have lived at all?


Well, there you go, no loss if they ban the chuckwagon races.

Hey, would could give horses a good life for a couple of years, then make them run across a mine field, bet on which ones make it. Better than not having lived at all, and all.

It's an event that many people find entertaining. Losing it would be a loss.

I'm not a statician and do not have the exact numbers, but the number of fatalities in the sport compared to the number of animals used is relatively low. It is in no way a death sentence for a horse in the same way living in a feedlot is for beef cattle. Comparing it to a minefield is absurd.

A better comparison would be to horses living in pasture. As a person who manages a herd, in 1 year from just gopher holes I expect 1 out of every 20 horses to die due to a broken leg, 1 out of 10 will suffer a severe injury requiring 6 weeks to 6 months of rehabilitation, and another 1 out of 10 will suffer a minor injury requiring less than 6 weeks of rehabilitation.

So right now, with the herd at 10 horses, I can expect at least 1 major injury, 1 minor injury, and possibly a fatality due to gopher holes. In army terms, that's a 25% casualty rate... And these are pleasure animals treated gently and ridden for fun. They aren't competition animals being injured in competition.

I'm pretty sure the Chuckwagon horses have better injury and fatality statistics then that. Mostly because they are catered too 95% of their lives. Their pastures are immaculately maintained in a way I can't maintain mine. There are no gophers. There are no predators. Fuck, there usually aren't even prickle bushes or thistles. The only risks they face in life are those 1 minute runs around the track. I wish I could treat my boy that good, and I wish we could have treated my girlfriend's horse that good. she was put down last fall due to a shatter clavicle from... a gopher hole.

At the end of the day, being a horse is dangerous no matter what that horse's vocation. If you want to jump on the bleeding heart bandwagon that cries for the sport to end, you might as well cry over all equestrian activities. they are all very dangerous for both the horses and the riders. But we do it because it is fun for both horses and riders. Risk is a part of life.

Many people would also find horses in a minefield entertaining. And we could adjust the number of mines to approximate the odds of dying equal to the chuckwagon races.

This.

These animals are the superstars, and they are treated like such. They live absolutely fantastic lives; best barns and pastures, best feed, best medical care, many of them even have their own personalised music selection (not kidding). Even if they snap a leg and have to be put down at 5, they live a much better life than your average horse ever will.

Sorry doesn't cut it. You can't justify needless pain and suffering and any preceding kind treatment won't cancel it out. Would you agree to such a gruesome fate so long as you got pampered before hand?

Also, animals have no concept of "superstardom" ....it means nothing to them. You think they crave celebrity? You think they worry whether they have it as good or better than other animals?

Slavery is wrong even when the Master is kind; similarly animal suffering for the sake of entertainment is also wrong even when they're otherwise well treated.