No death in the afternoon: state TV axes bullfights
I have very mixed feelings about bullfighting. I’ve never gone to one, though part of me is tempted by the traditional ‘ambientation’. But I don’t think I’d do well watching the ritual slaying because the only time I ever saw one on television I burst into tears.
On the other hand, I would feel hypocritical denouncing bullfighting since I eat meat. And although I try to buy free range as much as possible I know that animals raised on factory farms suffer much worse and much longer than the bull in the ring. The basic life story of a fighting toro is that it is lives like a king for 3-5 years with plenty of fresh air, good food and exercise, then puts up a fifteen-minute fight for its life and is killed relatively quickly. And as far as I know, afterwards the meat is usually sold to be eaten.
I think not showing the fights on TV in the afternoons is probably a good thing, though as the article says, it’s only being banned by the state television – the regional public broadcasters will continue showing them. But although I personally find bullfighting distasteful I can’t bring myself to say it should be banned altogether.
What do you think?
casa azahar 
Oh, I read aboout this a few weeks ago and wondered if it ewas a ‘blanket’ thing or whether there would be a way round it. The way it was reported in the Guardian made me feel it was a rather heavy-handed piece of left wing agit-pol from a socialist government that had no real popular backing (the move, not the government), rather similar to the half-arsed thinking by the left-wing on fox-hunting in this country.
As you know, one of the highlights of my first stay in Sevilla was my visit to the Paza Del Toros, which I found both fascinating and educational. Living as I do on ‘Daily Mail’ island, where every new immigrant is launching an attack on our ‘age old’ traditions (such as committing pogroms and generally being drunken louts), I do think a ban on Bullfighting itself would be a wholly unwarranted attck on an essential part of Spanish culture (though I remind myself that it is only in some parts – was it he Catalans who banned it without much of a popular uproar?) I certainly couldn’t see it playing well in Andalucia.
I also think that most of the (doubtless well-meaning) proponents from outside Spain for a ban would do well to remember that it isn’t supposed to be a fair fight, and indeed that ‘bullfight’ is a rather sloppy and innacurate translation of something that to practioners and fans tend to see rather as an artform which inevitably leads to the death of the bull (hence the rapidity with which those bulls that kill toreadors are dispatched). As you rightly say, the bulls live a lfe of kings andf there end is probably better than that offered by the local abattoirs.
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Really, an end better than that at the abattoir? I don’t know how they do it in Spain, but here they put a bullet in the back of the brain and the steer dies pretty much instantly. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t part of the ritual of bull fighting the picadors and what not? Do they not sever the tendons at the back of bull’s the neck so that the bull’s head will stay down in the proper position for the final sword thrust? And this sort of torture is better than an instantaneous death?
I am not a vegetarian either, and I did attend a bull fight in Mexico when I visited there. I found the whole process ugly and disturbing.
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That’s a nice, sterilized view of an abbattoir. But, with respect, rather removed from the reality.
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Indeed. The reality is more like a poorly-paid, semi trained operative with a badly-aimed captive bolt gun and a wire coathanger.
I’ve stated repeatedly that I think the notion of ‘Animal Rights’ is a nonsense. Our principal concern should be human suffering, and animals should in no way be regarded as ona moral par as us. However, that is not to say that I endorse wanton cruelty to animals. We would be deeply suspicious of anyone who tortured kittens for a hobby. We would suspect that this persons lack of empathy might also have wider implications. It says something about a society when it considers it entertaining to watch a bull being goaded with spikes.
I’m not about to start actively campaigning against bullfighting – but government disapproval of it has, I think, to be regarded as A Good Thing.
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>We would suspect that this persons lack of empathy might also have wider implications. It says something about a society when it considers it entertaining to watch a bull being goaded with spikes.<
An interesting viewpoint, and one I’d be fascinated to see you expand in a bar in the vicinity of the Plaza del Toros in Sevilla.
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You pay the airfare, I’ll expand! 🙂 I don’t think I’d be unique in Spain in saying that bullfighting isn’t the most attractive feature of their culture.
Do note, though, that I’m far from saying that anyone who could possibly enjoy a bullfight is automatically a Nazi. I hope I’ve made it clear enough that it’s not something I lose sleep over. On the other hand…the best people are (probably, on balance, on the whole) those who are nice to kittens and don’t regard animal slaughter as entertainment.
Then again…we all enjoy watching leopards kill antelopes on TV, don’t we?
As it happens, I don’t eat meat, but I’ve got absoluitely no moral issue with animal slaughter and am a staunch defender of animal testing.
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And I think the angriest I’ve ever been is when I discored from her website that Anne Widdecombe had made a tripm to Gaza to investigate the plight of donkeys there.
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And speaking of donkeys, there used to be a very bizarre ritual here in some village in northern Spain (cannot remember the name of the village) where once a year they would toss a live donkey from the top of the chuch belltower. Like – WTF? Anyhow, they don’t do that anymore, largely due to animal rights activist protests. So kudos to them on that one, but I mostly think they are a bit nutty myself.
The picadors bleed the bull. They poke those nasty yet festively decorated spikes into the bull’s neck to bleed it, to make it weak. Meanwhile the matador is playing with the bull, making it dodge through the yellow & pink cape. Once the bull is sufficiently worn out the matator takes out a smaller red cape, and a sword, that he inserts into the nape of the bull’s neck to ensure a hasty death. If the bull doesn’t die immediately this is considered a ‘bad kill’ and the matador is booed from the stands. He is shamed.
And sometimes the bull wins. If a particular bull puts up an amazing fight the crowd will call to have the bull spared … then it gets put out to pasture, to stud. But I don’t think this happens very often.
Meanwhile, it must be remembered that these are special bulls bred for ‘la corrida’ (they don’t call them bullfights in Spanish). It is considered an art form, representing life and death, the blood on the sand (the colours of the Spanish flag – red and yellow).
And bear in mind that these bulls – the toros – are bred to fight. Only the strongest and feistiest make it to the bullring. And so they die fighting … is that really worse than the factory farm animals living in boxes or small enclosures where they can barely turn around? Until they are packed into a lorry and taken to the slaughterhouse? And die screaming in fear? (oh, I saw a documentary about pigs being brought to slaughter – they knew! – and they were screaming their heads off).
Again, I’m not defending bullfighting perse … I just don’t see where I could actually denounce it without feeling like a total hypocrite.
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I’d like to know how they got the donkey up the belltower. It reminds me of my Prague hippopotamus story.
Oh, I can see the atavistic attraction in bullfighting. But it’s undeniably a grubby practice.
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Are you sure is a donkey? I thought it was a goat, in some villages is a duck, a hen…
But fortunatly this is going to disappear,actually it is already in most of those villages, at least the one about the goat. There still many stupidities to eliminate.
About the bullfighting… I used to like it. I found methaphors about life( haven´t you notice the lexicon of bullfighting in everday language?) and the cheesy esthetic too, but now, I think it´s disgusting see the animal suffering and no metaphor is worthwhile any suffering. It´s a bit cranky. However you won´t see me in a demostration against bullfighting. Basicly because it´s useless. Bullfighting is not popular anyway.
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Yes, now that you mention it,Maria, I think it’s a goat too. Still …
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And speaking of goats and weird customs …
Goats sacrificed to fix Nepal jet
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He he.
Foreign countries are like the past. They do things differently there.
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Well, I stand corrected. I have never actually been to an abattoir, I can’t imagine that I would find the wholesale slaughter of animals anything other than nauseating.
I appreciate the elucidation of bull fighting also. I still don’t really enjoy it, nor do I enjoy watching the nature shows where the leopard kills the antelope. Sorry, it is just a little too gruesome for me, even though I realize that carnivores have to kill to eat.
I will say that I have participated in the butchering of the meat I eat. I have a meat cleaver with an 11″ long blade with which I have personally cut the heads off of hundreds of chickens over the years.
And we used to raise a steer to feed the family every other year. One steer would provide enough meat to keep 5 people fed for a couple of years, when added to the chickens and pigs we also raised. Our steer was never taken to an abattoir. The butcher would come out to our place with his mobile refrigerated truck and a 30.06 rifle. We would put down a good sized bucket of grain and the steer would quietly stand eating, while the butcher took a slow and good shot. One bullet in the brain and the animal would collapse as if the strings on the puppet had been cut. This was also the method used for the pigs. No fear, no screaming, no adrenaline laced meat. Not many people in America can say the same.
Personally, I believe if you are going to eat meat, you ought to at least be able to kill and dress a chicken. Larger animals are a lot harder to process, and we always let the professionals do it. They had the equipment and the freezer.
Because of the laws in force regarding the selling of meat, and also the fact that a meat processor will go out of business if people find out that they are getting the meat from an animal other than the one they raised, you will actually get to eat the meat of the animal that you raised on your place. This is a very good thing in my book, since all our meat was raised organically and on an organic farm.
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I do have to say one thing, though. I wonder about that documentary about the pigs. I didn’t see it, so I really don’t know what the picture was like. They were screaming their heads off — I believe that. Did they really know what was going to happen? It has been my experience that pigs scream their heads off when you are loading them into the truck to move them from one field to the other, or if you happen to pick them up by one leg to give them a vaccination when small, or when they hear the lid of the feed barrel slamming down and they know dinner is about to arrive. However, they are also very smart animals, so I could believe that they would know something bad was going down at the slaughterhouse.
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I am sure you will not publish my remarks because I don’t think many of the comments above are made by anyone other than shallow-minded, insensitive, scum.
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And you are … not?
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