Well, the 3rd animal died today at the Calgary Stampede: a steer was killed in the steer “wrestling” competition.

So far two horses and have been killed in races in addition to today’s steer at this year’s Stampede, which is Canada’s largest rodeo event.

Here’s what the rodeo has to say about it: “To lose an animal regardless of the circumstances is always difficult for the Stampede and all the rodeo participants.” Yeah, difficult in terms of PR and cost for the poor animal.

This is just plain wrong. There was no reason for this 1 year-old steer to die. He was killed as part of entertainment, and he never chose to take part in an event where he would get yanked around by a cowboy. He never chose to die after sustaining a spinal cord injury.

This is what steer wrestling looks like. (Image © phatman from Flickr)

This is just plain pointless, and there can be no justification for entertainment like this.