Langley rodeo grant draws criticism from Vancouver Humane Society

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The Vancouver Humane Society is opposing provincial tourism funding for a Langley rodeo event that will enter its second year of competition in September.

The Valley West Stampede is one of more than a dozen rodeos and related fairs and shows receiving funding from the province’s Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund this year. Events hosted by non-profits, municipalities, and First Nations and Indigenous organizations were eligible for this year’s grants.

The Valley West Stampede received $33,700.

The Humane Society is opposed to rodeos, and when the Valley West Stampede started last year at the Langley Riders Society facility in Brookswood, it made its opposition to the township council clear.

“It’s fundamentally at odds with how we should treat animals,” said Chantelle Archambault, director of communications at the Vancouver Humane Society.

READ ALSO: VIDEO: Vancouver Humane Society releases anti-rodeo video

READ ALSO: Thousands Attend Langley’s First Professional Rodeo

Events at Valley West include bareback riding, women’s barrel racing, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding.

Archambault said the Humane Society opposes bucking events because spurs or flank straps are used to irritate animals and cause them to rear up.

The event will also include mutton busting, an evening where young children ride sheep.

“It teaches kids that it’s okay to treat animals roughly for our own entertainment,” she said.

Valley West organizers, like organizers of other rodeos, have argued in the past that all of their animals are treated well. At Valley West last year, no animals were harmed and a veterinarian was on site at all times.

“We and more than 1,100 other events across the province have applied for funding through the Ministry of Tourism’s Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund this year,” Valley West Stampede President Sheila Hicks said in a statement. at the Langley Advance Times.

“All events that have received provincial funding are considered to provide a benefit to their local communities and, in fact, the list includes several other rodeo events along with ours,” she added.

Hicks also noted that Valley West is the Fraser Valley’s only professional rodeo event sanctioned by the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association and drew more than 6,000 viewers last year.

“We have great support from the local community and we attract visitors who contribute to tourism spending in Langley,” she said.

Archambault said the Humane Society does not plan to demonstrate at this year’s event, but encourages Langley residents to ask the township council to pass a bylaw banning rodeo events.

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