WATCH: The disqualification of a tie-down roper for animal mistreatment is being met with mixed reaction. Tuff Cooper was forced to end his Stampede rodeo run for whipping his horse during competition. Global’s Gary Bobrovitz reports.
CALGARY – Calgary Stampede officials have made the unprecedented move of eliminating a competitor because of the alleged mistreatment of his horse.
Judges say cowboy Tuf Cooper, who is from Decatur, Texas, aggressively whipped his horse with a rope during the tie-down event Wednesday afternoon.
Stampede spokeswoman Kristina Barnes says it’s believed to be the first ruling of its kind at the competition.
She says using a rope as punishment or correction is unacceptable under the Stampede’s animal care protocols.
READ MORE: 3 men taken to hospital after stabbing at Calgary Stampede
Cooper’s agent, Shawn Wiese, says his client accepts the Stampede’s decision and doesn’t question it.
Wiese says Cooper has high regard for his horses.
“Tuf’s horse was late coming out of the box,” wrote Wiese in an email to Global News. “Just like a barrel racers (sic) whips her horse home to the finish line or a chuck racer whips their horses to the finish line, Tuf had to get his horse going to catch up to the calf.”
“Tuf would never harm any animal let alone his own horses. Tuf treats his horses like royalty and their health and well being are top priority.”
According to the Stampede’s website, in the tie-down event, cowboys must rope a calf and tie three of its legs while his horse keeps the rope taught.
Cooper, 25, had been the 2011 Calgary Stampede tie-down roping champion.
A statement posted by Cooper’s Circle Star Ranch on Tuf Cooper’s official Facebook page says the cowboy “has a very tender heart and love for all things, especially animals.”
READ MORE: Police lay charges in dangerous balloon chair Stampede stunt
Earlier this week, a national animal-rights organization called Animal Justice called on the Calgary Humane Society to prosecute “inhumane rodeo practices” at the Calgary Stampede.
The group said more than 50 horses have been killed during chuckwagon races alone at the Stampede since 1986.
So far this year two horses have been euthanized as the result of injuries suffered during the chuckwagon competition.
The Stampede’s Chuckwagon Safety Commission called the deaths “extremely regrettable” and said the Stampede is working to ensure the focus of the drivers “is running a safe, clean race.
BELOW: Read the complete statement from Circle Star Ranch
“Please consider this an open letter to anyone who may have any concern about how Tuf Cooper treats animals.
First, let me say that I consider myself an expert on how Tuf Cooper treats his horses and it is from that perspective I speak about the “judgement” of the Canadian officials in Calgary that Tuf somehow abused a horse during a roping event at their rodeo.
Sheila and I own Topaz, Tuf’s main rope horse. We have owned her since she was a two year old. From the day we acquired her, we knew she was something very special and that she deserved the best care and training available. We have spared no time and no expense to make sure she has been well cared for. For the past six years, she has been in training and under the daily care of James Barton of Blufdale, Texas. James and his wife, Emily, have trained and cared for some fifty of our performance horses over the past ten years and we know, first hand, they share our desire that our horses be treated especially well. It stands to reason, then, that Topaz would be at the Bartons where she has been for the past six years and during which time, James has shown Topaz in AQHA events around the US.
Sheila and I, individually and under our business, Circle Star Ranch, are current members of the AQHA, NCHA, NRCHA, and Texas Cattle Raisers Assn. We have raised and shown horses for the past twenty years. We have a world-wide reputation for world class Western performance horses. Our horses have won several world titles and we have have sold horses to buyers here in the US as well as New Zealand, Canada, Panama, Brazil, Columbia, and Argentina.
Because we have been very concerned with how our horses are treated by their trainers and exhibitors, in the past twenty years, we have allowed only three people to train, ride, and exhibit them – And one of those three is Tuf Cooper.
We have been extremely close to Topaz, her travels with Tuf, and his showing her showing in pro rodeo events. At no time have we ever seen any evidence of any mis- or mal-treatment of Topaz – and neither has her vet, Sonny Seale, who performs periodic physical examinations of her. James has traveled with Tuf and Topaz; Sheila and I have been “behind the scenes” at many events where Tuf rode Topaz. And after Tuf shows Topaz, he returns her to the Barton’s in Blufdale. We would know by her physical, mental, and emotional condition if Tuf was not a good steward of our prize, Topaz.
James, I have known Tuf, since you introduced us three years ago. Never have I met anyone, much less a 20 something, especially one with his successes, who is as God-loving, humble,respectful, grateful, well-grounded and caring as Tuf; he has a very tender heart and love for all things, especially animals. Indeed, Tuf is a living role model, in the truest sense of the concept, to any young person, male or female. Tuf truly is an amazing young man and, at 70 years old, I am proud, very proud, to consider him a friend and he can ride, show, and keep any of our horses, anytime!”
With files from Global News reporter Erika Tucker
Comments