I have been watching it on Toros TV from Seville. It's cruel but fascinating at how many people show up to watch this. Seems to be an upper class event. I have have never heard of the Picador before - a guy on a huge horse who spears the bull to weaken him. Cruel stuff. The Matadors are treated like rock stars.
shareNo. I'm not a vegetarian but of course don't like seeing an animal being abused. I won't go to a rodeo, let alone a bullfight, where the Picadors stick the poor thing with lances.
shareI'm with you. Zoos are the worst.
shareI am a vegetarian and I've been to a few rodeos, and they aren't the worst animal abuses going by far (try a meat-packing plant). In fact, in the bucking bronco and bull-riding contests, the human contestants take a far worst beating than the animals, and the animals look thoroughly smug when they throw off a human! They'll take a little victory lap around the ring with their heads and tails up, while the human contestant lies there in the dirt and tries to get up.
I know someone who works with racehorses, and they say that for all the breeding and training involved, a horse is useless on the track if it doesn't *want* to win. I am under the impression that it's the same with the bucking bulls and broncs, they know they're in a contest with the humans, and they actually want to throw the human off and take their victory lap.
a horse is useless on the track if it doesn't *want* to win. I am under the impression that it's the same with the bucking bulls and broncs
They're sold. Maybe they become working horses on a ranch, maybe some rich girl trains them in dressage, maybe they breed.
But since there's no real market for tough horsemeat in North America, their odds are waaaay better than the bucking bulls.
Yes. And I would cheer for the bull. You pick a fight with a bull, you deserve to get two horns shoved through your ass.
sharethey treat it like any other sport with commentators, replays and they interview the matadors afterward.
i haven't seen the bull win yet.
That's because they drug the bulls.
shareIn Portugal the bull gets more of a chance.
shareI don't think they use those spear things, right?
shareThey don't kill the bull in the public arena. From what I have heard the bull gets more of a chance to fight back. In Spain as soon as the bull looks like they might get their own back it starts getting gored.
And no, in Portugal they don't use spears.
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I used to attend habu (a poisonous snake similar to a rattlesnake) versus mongoose fights when I lived on the island of Okinawa as a teenager. They've since been banned. I didn't see them as cruel, just nature doing its thing in front of an audience.
In the fights that I attended, the mongoose always won. I even saw one match where it took on two snakes and killed them both. Those are some fierce, fast, crafty and admirable little animals.
As far as a bullfight, I'd probably watch one, just out of curiosity.
No. Same in Mexico. I wouldn't attend. And I can't say I feel sorry for the Matadors who are occasionally disfigured or gored to death.
shareNo, it wouldn't interest me. It sounds boring.
Considering that we also slaughter beef for food in a much less glorious and rather cruel manner, I have no problem with killing a bull for sport. Cultural institutions are important.
I would like someone who opposes bullfighting to tell me whether or not they eat beef?
> Considering that we also slaughter beef for food in a much less glorious and rather cruel manner, I have no problem with killing a bull for sport.
How does that make any sense at all? Totally different death experiences, killing an animal for food quickly and relatively painlessly, and torturing it in the hot sun, while it is wounded and scared?
Oh please, I just perused site after site detailing inhumane brutality in American slaughterhouses.
The difference in bullfighting is that the bull remains active and fighting. And he lives a rather pampered existence before the fight.
From what I've seen, though the bullfight is rigged and unfair, it's less cruel than what a cow endures in a slaughterhouse.
It's hypocritical to advocate an end to bullfighting if you still eat beef. (I don't eat beef by the way).
Cow Shot Repeatedly at Meatworks Slaughterhouse in Massachusetts
An employee shot a cow in the head four times at a Meatworks slaughterhouse in Westport, Massachusetts. She was still standing and looking around after the first three shots, which were misplaced, and was finally incapacitated by the fourth shot. This wounded animal endured an extended period of suffering before finally being killed.
Incidents in which slaughterhouse workers repeatedly shoot animals in the head occur dismayingly often.
https://www.peta.org/blog/how-animals-are-killed-slaughterhouses-cruelty-cases/
You're not very bright when you generalize about all slaughterhouses by one bad report.
It's like saying since mass murderers exist all humans must be mass murderers.
Go trade your defective brain in for a working one.
Oh jeezus christ ad hominem attacks because you can't address the issue. Lol.
You're not very bright if you think any slaughterhouse is a nice place and you think the animals are not terrified.
Something in my gut tells me a bull would rather die fighting.
No, a bull dying in battle experiences a much more natural death then one herded into a slaughtering house.
Stop eating beef or stop being a hypocrite.
calling it a fight is a stretch. It's more like torture in front of a crowd, before the bull is finally put out of its misery.
shareBut I cannot justify banning bullfighting because I'm not of that culture and don't understand the appeal, while I still eat hamburgers. Those bulls live better lives than cattle destined for the slaughterhouse.
sharenot that much better , they dont get a xbox or anything .
The slauterhouse catlle get green grass and fileds to play in too.
and at the end of the day , misfire incidents aside ,
the idea of the slaughterhouse is a quick and painless death
and the idea of the ring is a long drawn out death .
I'm not sure how you see being lined up, watching the cows in front you get their brain crushed with a blow to a face, and waiting your turn in line to die - as being a better death than at least thinking you have chance to gore the fuck out of some guy. Bulls are fighting animals.
As I said, unless you don't eat beef and want to ban the beef industry, it's hypocritical to oppose bullfighting on ethical grounds.
This is more about weak pacifism than not wanting to kill bulls.
"Bulls are fighting animals."
Are they ever. I once attended a Mexican Rodeo because the promotional hype was that the bulls to be featured were especially ferocious, feral, recently captured in the wild, with little to no contact with humans before that. It was brutal, didn't disappoint. The favored cowboy of the event got his ass stomped into the dirt, big time. He was downright fortunate to walk away from that encounter alive.
A warrior wants to die fighting. Seriously, it's a better way to die than waiting in line to be slaughtered for dinner.
The cattle are walking down a chute and can not see what lies around the corner. Thank Temple Grandin for that.
>> As I said, unless you don't eat beef and want to ban the beef industry, it's hypocritical to oppose bullfighting on ethical grounds.
That is completely without logic or reason. It's like someone saying that if the death penalty is acceptable, it is acceptable to kill someone with a painless drug induced coma, or torturing them to death. You're just plain nuts.
As I've said, bulls are warriors. For myself, I'm a warrior. I would rather die fighting, even if that involves pain. It's superior to dying like a sheep with a blow to the head.
Not everyone thinks like you. Bulls certainly don't.
Bottom line, either we stop eating beef and ban bullfights. Or we eat beef and watch bull fights. You're making an assessment with a cultural bias.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/mcdonalds/images/cows.gif
In somewhat the same vein, I've always been turned off by the "catch & release" style of fishing disguised as sport. Any fisherman who's ever been accidentally snagged by a fishhook knows how painful that is. It's no different for the fish that gets thrown back in.
shareAgreed. It seems like unnecessary suffering just so the fisherman can pose for a photo. I was at a pier one day and a family were so busy taking photos of the fish their daughter just caught that it ended up wriggling out of her hands and hit the floor than managed to wriggle back into the sea. The problem is it was dead once it hit the water.
They were heavily criticized by the other fishermen there for it being a waste as well as the needless suffering.