MÖTLEY CRÜE's Tommy Lee Wants The Calgary Stampede Chuckwagon Races Cancelled
April 26, 2013, 11 years ago
According to Globalnews.ca, MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee has written a letter to Alberta’s premier urging her to “use her influence” to cancel the chuckwagon races at this year’s Calgary Stampede.
Lee says in the letter to Alison Redford that horses are injured or killed in the races every year.
“I love touring Canada, and our Calgary fans are among the roughest and toughest. But I’ve heard about some unwilling participants in an annual local event much harsher than a Motley Crue show — the horses killed year after year in the chuckwagon races at the Calgary Stampede,” Lee writes to Redford, who is also a Calgary MLA.
“The only way to make these races safe is to cancel them. There was a time when cowboys respected their horses, instead of riding them to death just to show off for a crowd.”
The letter was written on the behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights advocacy group that is a longtime critic of the chuckwagon races.
“I learned from my friends at PETA that despite new rules to make the races safer last year, three horses had to be euthanized after crippling injuries when their wagons collided,” wrote Lee.“The horses forced into the chuckwagon races die of heart attacks, broken necks, broken legs and other injuries. It’d be easy to get off on western tradition without this bloody spectacle.
“Dude, it’s the Old West, not ancient Rome!”
Read more at Globalnews.ca.
