A horse has been euthanized Saturday night following an injury sustained at the chuckwagon races, Calgary Stampede CEO Joel Cowley said in a news conference.
It belonged to Aubrey Mono Willows’ team and suffered a fracture while racing on the track. Cowley said emergency veterinarian care was “immediately” dispatched.
“After consulting with the veterinarian, the owner made the decision that it was the most humane thing to euthanize that horse,” he said.
This comes after two other horses were euthanized after sustaining injuries at the 10-day event. One was on the first day of the event on Danny Ringuette’s team, and another horse on Chance Thompson’s team the next day.
A steer was also euthanized on July 8 after being injured.
Four horses at the chuckwagon races have died since the Stampede changed the format to three-team heats in order to make them safer.
Changes were first proposed to the sport in 2020 after six horses died during the Calgary Stampede in 2019.
“If you take a look at both our rodeo rules, and you take a look at our chuckwagon rules as they pertain or compare to the governing bodies, our rules are far more animal friendly. And we know that we need to do that for our crowd,” Cowley said.
This includes going from four wagons to three and lane delineators so that wagons on the inside can escape should they be pressured.
Ground-penetrating radar is also used to create a level surface underneath that top surface and monitor the moisture content of the soil so that it’s soft enough for those animals to run on, “but not so soft that it is difficult to pull a wagon.”
Cowley says the Stampede works “very, very hard” to minimize incidents such as this one.
“We also inspect animals upon arrival, inspect them on a daily basis. But clearly, we have more work to do,” he said.
“The critics of our animal activities will say this is unacceptable. Quite frankly, we agree. But unacceptable to us means we have more work to do.”
He says several organizations that race horses and provide rodeos work on making the sport safer, adding the Stampede will work with them to “continue to evolve our programs and our animal safety to make it as safe as possible.”
The Vancouver Humane Society said earlier that 108 animals have died at the Stampede rodeo and chuckwagon races since it began tracking fatalities in 1986.
With files from Lauryn Heintz