Bullfighting: A Tradition of Tragedy

PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

http://www.peta.org/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=64

Each year, approximately 10,000 bulls die in bullfights, an inaccurate term for events in which there is very little competition between a nimble, sword-wielding matador (Spanish for “killer”) and a confused, maimed, psychologically tormented, and physically debilitated animal.(1)

Preparations for the Bullfight
The bulls are intentionally debilitated with heavy sandbags dropped on their backs.(2) A study conducted by scientists at Spain’s Salamanca University found that 20 percent of the bulls used for fighting are drugged before they step into the ring; in the sampling of 200 bulls, one in five had been given anti-inflammatory drugs, which mask injuries that could sap the animal’s strength.(3) One common—albeit illegal—practice is to “shave” the bulls’ horns by sawing off a few inches, which impairs their coordination.(4) According to one matador, some of the top performers may also “ask breeders to deliberately select placid bulls …. It’s the only way to sustain your energy for the duration of the season.”(5)

Ritualistic Slaughter
In a typical event, the bull enters the arena and is approached by picadores, men on blindfolded horses. The picadores drive lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles, impairing the bull’s ability to lift his head. They twist and gouge the lances to ensure a significant amount of blood loss. Then come the banderilleros on foot, who proceed to distract and dart around the bull while plunging banderillas—“brightly colored sticks with harpoon points” into his back.(6,7) When the bull has weakened from blood loss, these banderilleros run the bull in more circles until he is dizzy and stops chasing. Finally, the matador appears and, after provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword.(8) If he misses, succeeding only in further mutilation, an executioner is called in to stab the exhausted animal to death.

“I can see how people see this as a barbaric thing,” said one French celebrity matador, Chamaco, whose antics were described by one spectator as follows: “He yells at the animal, gesturing wildly and triumphantly, teasing it, taunting it, begging it to dance with him.”(9)

If the crowd is happy with the matador, the bull’s ears and tail are cut off and presented as a gift. A few minutes later, another bull enters the arena and the sadistic cycle starts again.

Other Victims
The bulls aren’t the only animals who suffer in the arena. The horses used in bullfights are blindfolded so that they don’t become frightened by the charging bull, and some are gored. At the Barcelona Olympics, The Philadelphia Daily News reported that on one night, “the bull charged the horse, knocked off the rider, knocked over the horse and got his horn tangled up in all the padding. The frightened horse, still blindfolded, kicked furiously as it lay on its side. The bull pushed and pulled, shoved and yanked, unable to free itself from the horse’s padding.”(10)

American author Ernest Hemingway, famous for romanticizing bullfights, once described the scenes of horses being gored: “I have seen these, call them disemboweling, that is the worst word when, due to their timing, they were very funny. This is the sort of thing you should not admit, but it is because such things have not been admitted that the bullfight has never been explained.”(11)

Opposition to Bullfighting
Pope St. Pius V decreed that bullfights are “altogether foreign to piety and charity.” He wished that “these cruel and disgraceful exhibitions of devils and not of men be abolished,” and he forbade attendance at them under penalty of excommunication.(12)

Barcelona recently declared itself “an anti-bullfighting city,” and 38 Catalan municipalities followed its lead; the last bullring in Barcelona closed in 2006 because of poor attendance.(13) According to a 2006 Gallup survey, 72 percent of Spaniards show no interest in bullfights, up from 31 percent in the ’90s.(14) Interest in bullfighting has also declined in Mexico and Portugal, and in China, Beijing officials decided not to build a bullring in a popular tourist destination for, according to one report, “fears of the country’s image.”(15) Unfortunately, there are still more than 1,200 government-funded bull ranches and dozens of state-sponsored bullfighting schools in Spain.(16) In France, bullfights are held in the cities of Nimes, Arles, Dax, Toulouse, and Byonne.(17)

What You Can Do
If you are planning to visit a country that permits bullfighting, please tell your travel agent that you are opposed to cruelty to animals in any form. Before vacationing abroad, you can write to the country’s ambassador and ask whether rituals involving animal slaughter are part of its tourist attractions. Make it clear that you want no part in such activities, and never be afraid to talk about the cruelty of bullfighting.

Please write to the Spanish, Mexican, and French embassies and explain that as long as this cruel blood sport continues, you will never visit their countries.

Embassy of Spain
2375 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20037

Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20006

Embassy of France
4101 Reservoir Road N.W.
Washington, DC 20007

References
1) Alex Duff, “Bullfighters Say Hollywood May Rescue Spain’s Dying Tradition,” Bloomberg.com, 5 Apr. 2006.
2) Phil Davison, “Matadors on Horns of a Dilemma,” The Independent 12 Feb. 1994.
3) “One-Fifth of Spain’s Fighting Bulls Drugged?” Reuters, 28 Nov. 2000.
4) Al Goodman, “Machismo vs. Money: Whose Bull Is Gored?” The New York Times 9 Mar. 1997: E6.
5) Leslie Crawford, “Life in a Cloak and Dagger World. Leslie Crawford Meets a Female Bullfighter Who Has to Deal With the Pride and Prejudices of Male Matadors as Well as the Bulls,” Financial Times 30 Jul. 2005.
6) Bill Lyon, “A Slaughter That Is Really a Slaughter,” The Philadelphia Inquirer 27 Jul. 1992.
7) Tony Hendra, “Man and Bull,” Harper’s Magazine 293 (1996): 69.
8) Lyon.
9) Sharon Waxman, “The Dance to the Death,” The Washington Post 25 Jun. 1992.
10) Rich Hofmann, “Blood, Death, Gore, at About $20 a Pop,” The Philadelphia Daily News 27 Jul. 1992: 84.
11) Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon (New York: Scribner, 1932).
12) Pope Pius V, Bullarum Romanorum Pontificum Vol. 4, 2nd Part, 1567, 402-4.
13) Fiona Govan, “Bullfighting’s Future in Doubt,” Telegraph 21 Dec. 2006.
14) Govan.
15) Abigail Wild, “On the Horns of Dilemma: Barcelona Has Given the Thumbs-Down to Bullfighting, but Will the Rest of Spain Follow Suit? Or Will This Ancient but Controversial ‘Sport’ Divide the Country,” The Herald 25 Dec. 2005.
16) Tom Hundley, “Ole! Fading Away: Though Steeped in Tradition and National Honor, Bullfighting Faces Uphill Battle for Audiences and Relevance in Spain,” Chicago Tribune 8 Sept. 2006.
17) Keith Johnson, “Besieged Bullfighting Find Young, French Savior,” The Wall Street Journal 24 Jul. 2006.