With four horses dead in a little more than 24 hours at the Calgary Stampede, organizers are facing a barrage of criticism from animal rights' groups.
The latest horse death occurred late Monday, when the animal broke its shoulder competing in the chuckwagon event.
Veterinarians treated the horse immediately, but decided its injuries were so severe, it needed to be put down.
Desiree Arsenault of the Calgary Humane Society said that society needs raise its voice to ask the Stampede to remove "high-risk" events such as chuckwagon races.
"It's just a matter of looking at the use of animals in the entertainment industry and deciding whether that's something society wants to continue," she told CTV Calgary.
The Vancouver Society and the U.K.-based group, League Against Cruel Sports, have been outspoken in their criticism of the Stampede throughout the last week.
Earlier on Monday, a horse died during the novice saddle bronc event, when it broke its back after bucking its rider off.
Another horse died of a heart attack Monday, as it trained for a chuckwagon run.
On Sunday, a horse died instantly of a heart attack during the team cattle penning competition. The female rider, Amy Carver, sustained a traumatic head injury when she was pinned under the horse as it fell to the ground.
Carver is still in intensive care.
Four animals -- one steer and three horses -- died last year at the Stampede.
The heart attacks, those could happen to a lot of people riding a horse in strenuous sports. The question is, why were there TWO heart attacks in the same twenty-four hour period? How did the bucking horse break it's back? How did the horse break its shoulder? All things that need to be investigated. But when four animals died last year and four more died this year, it's time for this to either end whether that means the end of the deaths, the end of certain events, or the end of the Stampede altogether.
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