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Full Version: Live animal mascots should be banned
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Sports teams like to have mascots. Usually they are a human in a ridiculous animal costume. Often enough  however, teams still use a live animal as their mascot. 
This puts the animal through a great deal of stress. In cases where two teams meet who both have animal mascots there can be some danger in the interaction between the two mascots.
One Green Planet has a petition to stop the practice. If it could even be banned in one country, the ban might spread.

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environme...l-mascots/

The idea of mascots seems a little silly anyhow. I won't even comment on some sports teams. However I will say that forcing an animal to be part of a noisy public sporting event is unfair to the animal. Whatever else sports teams do, they should give up the idea of a live animal mascot.
AFAIK, this practice is in the USA. I hadn't even heard of it before reading your thread. What about Canada, Catherine?

In Europe, the practice of having mascots is not so common. Even where there are mascots, these are either large stuffed toys or humans dressed as an animal.

For use of association football mascots (note: football is a different game in Europe to the USA) see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_as..._and_Wales

For an example of a mascot in the UK:
[attachment=240]

(Click to enlarge).

I don't know about all sports clubs in all countries, but AFAIK this is a USA phenomenon. As for having a live bull as a mascot, well....words fail me!
Canada has lots of mascots. The closest thing to a live mascot is a horse that they ride around the field every time the Calgary Stampeders score a touch down. That would be in Canadian football which is different from American Football. I am not sure the horse is considered a mascot in the same way the others are.

The Stampeders have a mascot that is different from the horse.

https://www.stampeders.com/mascots/

Some Canadian mascots.

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/other-sp...c214vhm/16

I couldn't find an example of a live animal as a sports  mascot in Canada.
It could be just the USA that uses live animal mascots.

Having a Texas long horn as a mascot seems extreme. What they did that was so crazy was bringing a bull dog to meet him. Of course the bull reacted.
Someone, including the dog could have been hurt.

Having a team dog might work. There are dogs who would enjoy being at the games with all the people and excitement. I am not sure how well they would like all the silly stuff. A dog might enjoy wearing a team sweater. Meeting a bull, definitely not.
MMM, I never thought of this before..My favorite football team has a live animal mascot...I can see how the animal could undergo stress now that I am thinking about it...I think the practice should be banned now too..8-((
I am sure some dog mascots love the experience, but for a bull or something else it might not be so good. You could watch your teams mascot and if he seems stressed you could mention it to them and encourage them to have a different mascot. The idea of live mascots dates back to a time when we didn't think about how animals feel about what we do to them.