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If you care about horses, you gotta know this: The Calgary Stampede’s chuckwagon races are horse death traps.
More than 70 animals have been killed during the annual Canadian festival’s races, including six who died in one week alone during the 2019 Stampede. 😢 The first horse died after he collapsed during the second heat of the races. Two days later, a horse was euthanized after suffering a fracture during the race, and the next day, another horse died, and three others were injured in a collision. On the last day of the event, three more horses died in an incident so gruesome that workers used a tarp to keep the public from catching a glimpse. 😨
In chuckwagon races, teams of horses are forced to pull covered wagons around a track at breakneck speed. They’ve fractured their legs, broken their backs, and had heart attacks, and can be seen foaming at the mouth with their eyes rolling back in their heads. Rules were tightened after six horses died at the Stampede in 2010, then again in 2015, and again after the straight-up bloodbath of the 2019 race, yet the death toll is still climbing. 😠 The Stampede was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and there were no chuckwagon races in 2021—but the races have continued in post-lockdown times, and so have the deaths. One horse died in 2022, another died in 2023, and three were euthanized after suffering painful injuries in 2024.
There’s no time to waste—plz urge Canadian officials to end this deadly event before more horses die!