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Calgary Stampede veterinarian David Chalack, interviewed on CTV on July 9, 2010 said the primary concern of the Calgary Stampede is the welfare of the animals. He repeated this over and over again. I will say this only once - he lied, and he knew he was lying. The primary concerns of the Calgary Stampede are profits and thrills. Thousands of paying customers derive pleasure from seeing bulls, calves and horses roped, chased, run ragged, whipped, spurred, thrown to the ground, tied up, hurt and terrified. What fun !
The same thrills have always been the purpose of bull fights, the running of the bulls at Pamplona, dog fights, cock fights, the butchery in the Roman forum, boxing matches, hockey, wrestling and other so-called "games" whose real function it is to satisfy a primitive urge in human beings - the blood-thirsty passion of the chase and watching others suffer, while being safe from all the consequences; the need to prove the viewer superior and even impervious to harm while being potent, macho enough to cause painful injury to others. It is war with little or no risk to the one who pays the piper.
At most of these spectacles, the customer is usually shielded from harm, while being inspired by the mob. It helps to numb any budding conscience if the viewer clouds the brain with drugs or alcohol
These public entertainments justify and encourage the lowest behaviours. They feed on the most base characteristics of men - and some women. In a crowd, these primitive urges and behaviours are supported and justified by mob mentality, so that the weakest, most ineffective members of society can feel big, strong, accepted, important,
ANIMA MEANS SOUL !
All the more so when the victims of these "games" are helpless animals. Sticking knives into living flesh is not acceptable in western society in our time. You may actually go to prison for a little while if you are caught doing it to a person. But if you do it to a captive bull, that makes you a hero in some circles.
The sight of someone else's blood inflames the passions of people whose primitive instincts find no suppression by conscience. And the crowd, the participants - including the tourist industries and the media - fire up those passions. Why? For profit, of course. Give the customer what he wants - for a price.
It is not true to say that there is nothing new under the sun, because we learn something new every day - some of it good - but people who find excitement and pleasure in the suffering of those who are helpless is clear evidence that thousands, perhaps millions of people, are still savages. Watch how the mob drools and hollers with pleasure when blood is shed - at a bull fight, at a boxing match. It is the same savage passion.
It is a struggle for more highly evolved people - people of conscience - to try to protect the innocent and the vulnerable, while resisting public opinion - so much of which is motivated by the insatiable, timeless hunger for power and profit.
Those who now sit upon Caesar's throne enjoying the spectacle will find there are some citizens who are not amused.
#30
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