While it is too early to tell whether this year's Calgary Stampede will result in any animal deaths, activists are already protesting outside Stampede grounds, urging the public to boycott the corporations that sponsor the 10-day event, which begins today.
They have cause. Since 1986, 59 animals at the Calgary Stampede have died or been euthanized. Of that number, 51 have been horses.
The discovery of horseflesh in a number of otherwise-labeled meat products in Europe is being described as a scandal but it is an entirely predictable result of industrialized animal exploitation organized according to the values of neoliberal ideology within globalized capitalism. All forms of life are transformed into commodities and deregulated industries are allowed to police themselves as they seek to obtain the greatest profits using the cheapest ingredients, which, in this case, means the corpses of sentient beings.
Toronto Cow Save bears witness of a crippled cow, known as a "downer" in the animal exploitation industry, at an early vigil on Monday, February 24, 2013 at St. Helen's "Meat Packers" slaughterhouse. Toronto Cow Save holds a vigil the following morning on Tuesday, February 25 and Mary Fantaske and other activists befriend Charloais and Hereford cows in a transport truck on a public road minutes before the truck backs up into the unloading area.
Mary says, "I almost forgot where we were for a moment and then you remember... they're going to die."
At Toronto Pig Save's morning vigil on Jan. 22, 2013, it was -12 ºC but felt like -20ºC with wind chill but for the pigs travelling on the highway on transport trucks it feels much colder b/e of the greater wind chill factor.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada "Recommended code of practice for care and handling of farm animals: Pigs" (1993), for trucks travelling at 80 km/hr, -12 would give you an unbearable -40 ºC, making an already horrific journey that much worse.
The report also states:
• Pigs have little natural protection from the cold and suffer frostbite quickly. Wind chill can kill pigs." (p. 36)
• A head wind or cross wind makes the chill effect even greater
