Ban the Calgary Stampede

Canada should follow Catalonia's example of ending bull fighting by reconsidering our own spectacles of animal abuse.

Spain’s Catalonia region has voted to ban bullfighting beginning in 2012. As Anna Mula of the anti-bullfighting group Prou says, the decision to end the practice sends a “message of compassion and progress to humanity.”

Canadians could add their voices to this compassionate and progressive message by banning some of our own spectacles of animal abuse, perhaps starting with major rodeo events like the Calgary Stampede.

Understandably, the popularity of bullfighting has been on the wane in recent years as increasingly sophisticated citizens recognize that there are more entertaining ways to spend an afternoon than to watch animals being stabbed to death in a stadium. These days, more people prefer soccer.

Most of those who still support bullfighting are “conservatives.” It is worth remembering that the practice was promoted under the fascist dictatorship as a symbol of national identity. As a marker of national identity, the brutal domination and killing of an animal seems to be a perfect fit for a fascist society. As Susan Sontag noted in her 1975 essay “Fascinating Fascism,” fascist aesthetics fetishize primitivism, power, and enslavement, with an orgiastic glamorization of death. But such practices hardly seem appropriate as symbols of a more civilized society.

Many opponents of the ban argued that bullfighting is a tradition and an “art form.” Right-wing politician Esperanza Aguirre even called for bullfighting to be given protected status under UNESCO as part of Spain’s cultural heritage. “Tradition,“ of course, is the weakest argument of all for justifying any practice: “We used to do it, so we’d better continue.”

Media coverage of the decision has taken up the theme that the ban is “really” about nationalist politics and that Catalan separatists banned the bullfight because it was a symbol of Spanish identity. However, there does seem to be a growing recognition that the practice is an archaic holdover that does not fit with a contemporary sensibility. The Canary Islands banned bullfighting in 1991. In Portugal, the city of Viana do Castelo banned it in 2009. The mayor, Defensor Moura, defined the ban as "an example of modernity" for others to follow, and noted that "the defence of animal rights is not compatible with spectacles that torture and impose unjustifiable suffering."

Perhaps it is time for Canadians to rethink some of our own public spectacles of animal abuse. Of course, there is a need to review our treatment of animals in general and end all practices of animal exploitation, but banning public displays of cruelty and domination might be one place to start.

The Calgary Stampede finished recently and, like every year, we see a sad record of animals injured or killed. (Of course, people are injured as well, but they have chosen to engage in these activities, whereas the animals are forced to do so.) The rodeo is based on the domination of animals and exploits their sense of panic and reactions to pain for entertainment. It is difficult to regard those who think the tormenting of animals is enjoyable to watch as anything other than sadists.

The values associated with the Stampede are similar to the values associated with bullfighting. It is no surprise that these events appeal to groups who define themselves as conservatives. The domination of animals is a perfect fit with the ideology of capitalism, which treats nature only as a resource to be exploited.

Just as with the bullfight, supporters of the Stampede say they are celebrating tradition. But these traditions are recently invented ones based more on Hollywood images of cowboys than on the actual history of Canadian livestock industries. Furthermore, the rodeo was denounced at its very inception for cruelty to animals and seen as a “relic of barbarism.”

Vancouver City Council has already banned rodeos in that city and the Vancouver Humane Society has urged other municipalities to follow suit. Canadians could pay a fine homage to Catalonia by extending the ban on rodeos across the whole country. By doing so, we too could send a message of compassion and humanity.