Pamela Anderson tells sponsors to buck the Cloverdale rodeo
Date: May 18, 2007
Pam weighs in on rodeo controversy with letter to rodeo sponsors
Vancouver: Celebrity Pamela Anderson, famous for speaking out on various animal abuse issues, from the treatment of meat chickens used at KFC to using exotic animals in circuses, has sent a letter to the sponsors of the Cloverdale Rodeo asking them to consider the cruelty inherent in rodeo events.
In her letter, she describes the calf-roping event: “The calf-roping event, for example, is particularly cruel. A baby animal, frightened and agitated, is confined in a small chute, prior to being released into the arena. Too often his head is slammed into the metal bars. Sometimes, he’s kicked. Then, just as the chute opens, the animal’s tail is painfully twisted. This is all done so the animal will run out and he does so because he is terrified and in pain.
“A cowboy on horseback then races after the calf with a lasso, which he attempts to throw around the animal’s neck. The calf can be travelling at speeds of up to 27 mph when it hits the end of the rope! The impact is such that the animal is snapped around by the neck to face in the opposite direction. Even worse is the “jerkdown” - where the calf is jerked into the air by the taut rope and lands on its back.”
Ms. Anderson is asking companies like Coca-Cola, The Keg Restaurant in Langley, The Province Newspaper and Global TV if they have considered the impact of being associated with an event that is increasingly unacceptable, and even abhorrent, in today’s society.
She has also asked for the companies to contact her through the Vancouver Humane Society, an organization that has long opposed the rodeo, citing its use of stress, pain and fear to make tame animals behave as if they are wild.
Ms. Anderson’s letter and the list of who she wrote to can both be viewed by clicking on the appropriate attachment below.
Click here for graphic photographs of rodeo events.
