But this morning I woke up to this article, and I HAD to post about it. As a Canadian, my news is filled at the moment with reports from two big events - the Toronto Pan Am games, and the Calgary Stampede. The Stampede is a long-standing Alberta rodeo tradition which often involves Canadian politicians showing up in funny hats:
Well, the big news today is that American cattle roper "Tuf Cooper" (hee) has been disqualified from the rodeo because he "aggressively" whipped his horse during his event because it was slow out of the gate. The position of the Calgary stampede is that "using a rope as punishment or correction is unacceptable under the Stampede’s animal care protocols."
Well, that's good news, I guess. Except… isn't it a bit strange that this is the position the Stampede takes because a man used a rope in a negative way on his horse in THIS EVENT:
Now, I want to be clear that neither of the men pictured above are Tuf Cooper. Let me just check and see…
Oh. Nope. Here's Tuf. It's awful.
CBC quotes Cooper's defence, via his agent:
"Tuf would never harm any animal let alone his own horses. Tuf treats his horses like royalty and their health and well-being are top priority … All rodeo athletes have respect for the animals involved in the sport and would never intentionally harm them."
Yep. That picture shows that he's giving that calf total respect, y'all.
The disqualification has been covered by the CBC and the Toronto Star , but neither make reference to the obvious cognitive dissonance here. BOO.
To make your day better, here's a picture of a calf not being chased and bound:
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