What are we teaching children at the rodeo?

Every summer in Manitoba, rodeo season brings thousands of children to local rodeos and the Manitoba Stampede. They arrive with cowboy hats and cotton candy in hand, excitement in their eyes.

Yet, as a mother who works in education, I can’t help but wonder: what are we teaching them in those stands?

Inside classrooms, we teach children that kindness matters. We encourage empathy, discourage bullying and ask students to consider how their actions affect others. Students are taught that animals experience fear, pain and distress, just like us. Yet when school ends, we celebrate events built around chasing, restraining, roping and riding animals for entertainment.

This contradiction is difficult to ignore.

Inside the classroom, I’ve witnessed children visibly upset that a caterpillar did not emerge from its chrysalis, thrilled to receive a special class visit by a therapy dog and students happily crowding around the fence to pet a pedestrian’s dog during recess. Children are naturally curious and love animals, but how we present opportunities with animals matters. It matters a lot.

Every experience with animals teaches something, whether we realize it or not.

Animals often provide a child’s first opportunity to practise empathy. Child development research tells us that positive interactions with animals can nurture kindness, patience, emotional regulation and respect for living beings. Humane education builds on these experiences by helping children see that their actions impact other living beings and that compassion can extend beyond our own species.

The opposite is also true.

When children witness animals being frightened, restrained and chased, they absorb a very different message. Children watch calves chased and roped; they see bulls and horses whose instinct to escape becomes entertainment. Applause fills the stands while animals display well-documented signs of fear and distress.

Inside these arenas is a message about what society considers acceptable in the name of entertainment

Supporters will say that rodeo is a sport but, in sports, all the players choose to be in the game. These animals are not given a choice. The animals used in rodeo are typically prey animals, and rodeo events rely on their natural fight, flight or freeze responses to perform. They are fighting, or fleeing, for their lives.

Much research has been done on identifying the behavioural and physiological markers of fear and distress in animals at the rodeo, during the event and beforehand in the chutes. Veterinary researchers have documented behavioural signs of fear and distress, including widened eyes, attempts to escape, distress vocalizations, excessive salivation and sudden rapid breathing.

Renowned animal behaviourist Dr. Temple Grandin has said that fear is so bad for animals that she considers it worse than pain. She has repeatedly stated that fear is one of the greatest welfare concerns for animals and that calm handling is both more humane and more effective.

Rodeo concerns extend beyond the treatment of animals. New Zealand psychotherapist Lynn Charlton took this issue to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to recognize the impact of rodeo on children. She formally appealed, arguing that animals are subjected to fear and injury during rodeo events, and witnessing violence teaches children that such treatment is acceptable.

In 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child officially recognized that children should be protected from exposure to violence, including violence inflicted on animals. That recognition challenges us to ask not only what rodeo does to animals, but what it teaches the children watching from the stands.

This question is not about creating divide but building a bridge. A bridge between where we come from and where we are heading.

Rodeos are an important tradition for many communities in our province. They celebrate Manitoba history, community, culture and heritage. But culture changes. Tradition evolves. Public values are changing our outlook on animal-centred entertainment.

At one time, circus acts with wild animals or theme parks with aquatic animals were viewed as family-friendly fun. Now, many circuses have transitioned away from animal entertainment, and Canada has made significant steps to ban whale and dolphin shows. Independent polling from firms such as Research Co. shows that 67 per cent of Canadians oppose the use of animals in rodeo events and this opposition is generally higher among younger people and urban families.

This indicates many Canadians are already rethinking the role of animals in entertainment.

As the humane educator Zoe Weil reminds us, the world becomes what we teach.

And we are always teaching kids.

So where does this leave us, as parents and educators of children? Where does this leave society, which wants to create meaningful opportunities for children and animals to interact and to celebrate culture and community in our province? There are alternatives and they are good ones. Visiting a farmed animal sanctuary such as Little Red Barn or Free From Farm Sanctuary, attending cultural festivals and heritage fairs, volunteering at a rescue shelter or showing up for presentations from a reputable organization, such as a local wildlife rescue or humane society.

If our goal is to raise compassionate, thoughtful children, we must ask ourselves which traditions we want to pass on and which ones are ready to evolve.

Danae Tonge is an organizer with Manitoba Animal Save.