Last weekend was one of incredible contrasts for me. On Saturday I spent the day at the wonderful Wishing Well Farm Sanctuary just north of Toronto. Sunday, I attended a protest at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.

Now in its 90^th year, there are shows (kind of like beauty contests) for chickens, cows, pigs, you name it. There’s a rodeo and there are animal auctions. There’s a butter sculpture contest. I’m sure the cows whose milk was used to make the butter didn’t mind being forcibly impregnated (restrained in a device the agricultural industry actually calls a rape rack) and having their babies removed from them as soon as they were born…After all, it was for a butter sculpture contest. The animals are all on a scale between nervous and terrified. I cannot describe it any better than We Animals photographer Jo-Anne McArthur did two years ago, so with her permission I am reproducing her blog post here.

The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair: A One-sided Story

Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

I spent Thursday afternoon wandering around the annual Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, which is one of the largest indoor agricultural shows in the world. I would say that one of its principle target audiences is children, whom they are educating about Canadian agricultural practices. I picked up many brochures, read a lot of corporate spin and many “fun facts” about animals used in agriculture.

In the brochure entitled “The Real Deal About Veal!”, published by the Ontario Veal Association (www.ontarioveal.on.ca), I learned that veal calves come in many colours! I learned that a cow is pregnant for about 9 months – the same gestation time as humans – before she gives birth to her calf. From there, the calf is taken away from its mother within an hour of birth and “moved into a pen so that farmers can care for them properly. This means feeding them colostrum, which is the first milk their mothers produce.” The calves never get to drink from their mothers; that’s our job. From there, calves go straight to an auction where other farmers can buy them.

I’ve been to these auctions and I can’t tell you how horrific they are. Seeing day-old calves being hit with sticks so that they parade back and forth so that the bidders can see the calf from both sides in the auction ring. Quite often the umbilical cord is still bloody and dangling from the baby’s center. The calves cry out in these noisy auction halls, perhaps out of fear or in search of their mother.

I also learned that calves quickly learn to walk, eat and explore the world around them. They didn’t mention that the world around them is a tiny crate that they will live in until the are slaughtered.

At the cow displays, I learned some “amoo-zing facts”; a cow’s life expectancy, for example, is 6 to 7 years. This isn’t true. A milking cow is slaughtered after 6 or 7 years, when her body is exhausted by the pregnancies and a lifetime of being milked. Cows can actually live up to 30 years. I learned some jokes as well. Q: Where do cows go on a Friday night? A: To the moooo-vies! No they don’t. Cows live out their lives in cramped spaces, on hard cement, being inseminated, having their babies yanked out of their bodies and then taken away from them, being milked until they can no longer be milked. Their hooves become warped from the cement and their udders become distended from the constant pregnancies and milking. Then they are transported to slaughter and turned into low grade beef or dog food.

There are many other exhibits at the Fair, one of which is called “Journey to Your Good Health” comprising a few dozen booths advertising their products. It was laughable. McDonalds was among them. Enough said.

As I walked around I saw cows and sheep tied tightly by their faces, getting sheared and blow dried in preparation for showcasing. As they were walked through crowds on smooth cement, many would slide and fall. One cow looked wildly afraid and refused to move. I asked if the cow was afraid and the owner’s reply was “No, she just doesn’t want to do what we want her to do.” The depth to which we put our superficial needs before theirs is disheartening. I doubt the cows care if they win “best in show.”

The Royal Fair exhibits are educational in that they give us insight to the values of animal exploitation industries. Today’s agriculture is built to feed the masses at a low cost to humans and without consideration for the animal. If you’d like your kids or classroom to have a more compassionate look at animals used in farming practices, there is tonnes of literature out there by authors such as Jeffrey Masson, and from organizations such as Farm Sanctuary, that allow animals formerly abused on farms to live out their lives and behave in a way that comes naturally to them.

You can check out some of Jo-Anne McArthur’s photographs of The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and other fairs here.

At Sunday’s protest, many people drove by, honked their horns and gave us a thumbs-up. A few gave us the finger (we generally respond by smiling and waving). We had a lot of people roll down their car windows to yell “I love bacon!” I’m sure they thought they were very funny, never mind original. I used to love bacon too. Turns out I love pigs more.

In my next post, you’ll find out why I love pigs more than bacon — and why I love cows more than steak and chickens more than chicken.

Well, the inevitable finally happened. Seven days into the animal cruelty extravaganza known as the Calgary Stampede, three horses are dead and another is injured following a horrific crash during yesterday’s chuckwagon race. (Photos of the accident are here.)

All three of the dead horses belonged to chuckwagon driver Chad Harden. He tearfully told reporters that he was devastated and heartbroken, that he loved his horses and that they were part of the family. But you don’t deliberately put someone you love in harm’s way. Whether it’s your kid or an animal, if they’re in your care your job is to protect them. You don’t protect them by knowingly putting them in a situation where there is a reasonable likelihood they could get hurt or die. Rodeo is not a sport any more than dog fighting or bear baiting is a sport. Nor is it a “cultural event.”

Says the Vancouver Humane Society:

“Rodeo promoters will say that calf-roping and other rodeo events are part of the culture of the old west. But when real cowboys roped calves on the range there was no pressure from a stopwatch or big prize money. It was done as gently as possible to ensure the animal was not injured. The myth of rodeo’s old west “heritage” has been used with other events. Real cowboys did not ride bulls (Why would they?) or wrestle steers (invented for rodeo in the 1930s) or have chuckwagon races (invented for rodeo in 1923). Rodeo has almost nothing to do with the culture of the old west. It is merely sensational entertainment – and it causes animals to suffer for the most trivial of purposes.”

I’ve seen the video of Chad Harden and I have no doubt that he is genuinely upset. This leads me to believe that he is either congenitally stupid or he’s got an absolutely monumental disconnect going on in his head. His horses are dead because he exploited them. The horses had no choice. Even though he claims to have loved them, he made them participate in an event that is notoriously dangerous, and he did it for thrills and money. I’m glad I’m not a beloved member of his family.

As bull fighting is to Mexico and Spain, as bear baiting is to Pakistan, the Calgary Stampede is Canada’s shame. You can see a list of animal deaths and causes between 1986 and 2010 at the Calgary Stampede here. It’s time to ban this archaic and inhumane form of “entertainment.”