Bob Barker Says ‘Stop the Stampede’
The always remarkable Bob Barker has sent urgent letters to the major sponsors of the cruel Calgary Stampede encouraging them to take PETA’s advice and end their support of the deadly event.
The Price Is Too High
Bob leapt into action after The Price Is Right—the game show he hosted for 35 years—began giving away prize packages that contained trips to the Stampede and to SeaWorld. Shortly afterward, Bob contacted the program’s producers to ask them to stop promoting cruel animal spectacles on the show.
Now Bob has gone the extra mile by writing to some of the main companies that sponsor the Stampede—including Bell Canada, General Motors of Canada Limited, and Anheuser-Busch International—detailing the kinds of animal suffering that their money will be funding and urging them to withdraw their financial backing from the event.
Stampeding Toward Disaster
Rodeos are always catastrophic for animals, but the Calgary Stampede is among the worst since they allow the use of barbaric devices that are illegal in many other countries, including electric prods and bucking straps (which are tightened around the animals’ groins) in order to irritate and enrage the animals.
During last year’s stampede, one horse had to be euthanized after breaking a leg on the very first day, and the previous year’s event cost six horses their lives. And that’s on top of the excruciating injuries—including broken bones, punctured lungs, internal bleeding and bruising, and torn tendons, ligaments, and muscles—suffered by many of the surviving animals.
No More Bucking Cruelty
As Bob tells the Stampede sponsors, “Surely no one would be cheering a nine-day display of violence if the terrified horses and calves were cats and dogs. I hope you will agree that no animal deserves to suffer like this in the name of a tradition that should have died out with the covered wagon’s last ride.”
