At best, the term "bullfighting" is a misnomer, as there is usually little competition between the sword of a nimble matador (Spanish for "killer") and a confused, maimed, psychologically tormented, and physically debilitated bull. Supporters justify the act by calling it a tradition. Opponents maintain that no matter what the history, bullfighting is torturous animal mutilation and slaughter.

Commercialism
One of the biggest supporters of bullfighting is the tourism industry. Travel agents and bullfight promoters portray the fight as a festive and fair competition. What they do not reveal is that the bull never has a chance to defend himself, much less to survive.

Many prominent former bullfighters report that the bulls are intentionally debilitated with beatings to the kidneys and heavy weights hung around their necks for weeks before the fight.¹ The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, a French group that opposes bullfighting, describes other methods of debilitating the bulls: "Most of the time the animals go into the arena blinded because they are put in darkness for 48 hours" before the confrontation. "Then people hit the head of the animal with bags of sand—long and violently—to deprive (the bull) of (his) senses ..."²

One common practice is to "shave" the bulls’ horns by sawing off a few inches. Bulls’ horns, like cats’ whiskers, help the animals navigate, so a sudden change impairs the bull’s coordination. Shaving is illegal, so the horns are sometimes inspected by a veterinarian after a fight. But in 1997, the Confederation of Bullfighting Professionals, including Spain’s 230 matadors, went on strike in opposition to these veterinary inspections. The strikers claimed veterinarians were "not experienced enough" to inspect the bulls.³ However, most recognize this as just another aspect of the corruption that infiltrates a business that brings in more than $1 million annually to each professional matador. In 1996, Spain tallied $1.4 billion in ticket sales.⁴

Systematic Mutilation
In a typical event, the bull enters the arena and is approached by men who exhaust and frustrate him by running him in circles and tricking him into collisions. When the bull is tired and out of breath, he is approached by picadors. Picadors are men on blindfolded horses who drive lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles. This impairs the bull’s ability to lift his head.⁵ 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 more lances into him. 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. Commonly, the matador succeeds only in further mutilation and an executioner is called in to stab the exhausted and submissive animal to death. ⁶ The dagger is supposed to cut the spinal cord, but even this can be blundered, leaving the bull fully conscious but paralyzed as he is chained by his horns and dragged from the arena.

"I can see how people see this as a barbaric thing" said a 19-year-old French matador star, Chamaco, but "the killing of the bull is like the signature on a painting," except this "piece" is promptly butchered and sold for meat. This same matador is famous for entertaining the audience. "He yells at the animal, gesturing wildly and triumphantly, teasing it, taunting it, begging it to dance with him," describes one spectator. ⁷ 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 cycle starts again.

Other Victims
The bulls aren’t the only victims of the arena. The publisher of an American pro-bullfighting magazine admitted that horses used in bullfights are "shot behind the ear with dope. The horses are drugged and blindfolded and they’re knocked down a lot." ⁸ These horses, who are often gored, usually have wet newspaper stuffed into their ears to impair their hearing, and their vocal cords are usually cut so their cries do not distract the crowd. The horses are often plow horses who have grown too old to be of use and end up being knocked down by bulls weighing up to a half a ton.⁹

American author Ernest Hemingway, famous for romanticizing the bullfight ritual, 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." ¹⁰

Bull Breeding
Selective breeding has enabled ranchers to create a bull who will die in a manner most satisfying to the public.11 Bulls are chosen to breed with cows who, when stabbed with lances, always charge in the same manner. They are bred to return to the torture repeatedly. ¹²

Other Rituals of Abuse
Mexican bullfighting also includes novillada, or baby bullfights. Baby bulls, some no more than a few weeks old, are brought into arenas where they are stabbed to death by spectators, many of whom are children. These bloodbaths end with spectators cutting off the ears and tail of the often fully conscious calf lying in his own blood.¹³

The so-called "bloodless bullfights" that are legal in many U.S. states involve people’s teasing and attacking the bull. Although tormenting and abuse is part of the show, killing must be done outside the arena.

In Colombia, there is an annual festival in which solitary bulls are tormented by thousands of people who think they are testing their "bravery" (aided by a festive atmosphere and large quantities of alcohol). "If nobody gets killed, it’s boring," laments Carlos Perez, head of the committee that organized the contest in 1996. But even Colombian bullfighter Luis Cuadrado admits, "It’s just one bull against a thousand morons." Cuadrado prefers to sit on the ground until the bull is close enough to stab with a lance, after which Cuadrado promptly scurries away to safety. These festivals last four or five days, with at least 35 victimized bulls each day. ¹⁴

Opposition
In 1567, Pope Pius V decreed that "exhibitions of tortured beasts or bulls are contrary to Christian duty and piety." He called for "an end to such bloody amusements, abject and more appropriate for devils than for men."15 Even supporters cannot deny that the practice is barbaric. The Mexican author Eduardo del Rio, who glorified the maiming of bulls in his books, candidly described bullfighting as "a stumbling block for the humanization of man." ¹⁶ Lyn Sherwood, publisher of a pro-bullfighting magazine, proudly declared, "I have no moral problem promoting something I consider morally unjustifiable."¹⁷

Most forms of the practice are illegal in America because of its inherent cruelty. But tourists, especially from America, keep bullfighting in business. At the same time, more young Hispanic people are protesting the crude ritual and in 1992, Madrid was besieged with 400 Spanish demonstrators calling for an end to the practice.¹⁸

Many anti-bullfighting groups have sprung up worldwide, including the Spanish Alternativa para la Liberación Animal, the Mexican Peña Antitaurina Mexicana, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Tijuana and Mexico City.

Spain’s Green Party has been working with the country’s Association for the Defense of Animal Rights (ADDA) to have bullfighting banned. In 1993, a petition drive by the coalition garnered more than 1 million signatures.¹⁹

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 animal cruelty in any form. Many tourist resorts are building bullfight arenas as part of their "recreation" facilities; refuse to stay at such a resort, and write a letter to the owner explaining why. Instead, visit the Spanish resort towns that have banned bullfighting: Tossa de Mar, Vilamacolum, and La Vajol. In Mexico, the city of Jalapa has also banned bullfighting.

• Before you go on vacation abroad, 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 of such activities, and never be afraid to talk about bullfighting cruelties. Most people are unaware of the facts but agree that bullfighting should be stopped once they hear the whole story.

• Please write to the Spanish and Mexican 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

References
1 Cole McFarland, "Death in the Afternoon,"
The Animals’ Voice, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1988.
2 Sharon Waxman, "The Dance to the Death,"
The Washington Post, 25 Jun. 1992, p. C5.
3 Al Goodman, "Machismo vs. Money: Whose Bull Is Gored?" The New York Times, 9 Mar. 1997, p. E6.
4 Ibid.
5 McFarland.
6 Bill Lyon, "A Slaughter That Really Is a Slaughter," The Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 Jul. 1992, p. C1.
7 Waxman.
8 McFarland.
9 Ibid.
10 Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, N.Y. Scribner, 1932.
11 McFarland.
12 Ibid.
13 World Society for the Protection of Animals, "Savage Spectacles," The Animals’ Agenda, Jul./Aug. 1988, p. 41.
14 Paul Haven, "Courageous or Bull-Headed?"
The Plain Dealer, 28 Nov. 1996.
15 Pope Pius V, Bullarum Romanorum Pontificum, Vol. 4, 2nd Part, 1567, pp. 402-4.
16 McFarland.
17 Ibid.
18 Associated Press, "Madrid Marchers: End Bullfighting ‘Torture,’" New York Post, 20 Jul. 1992.
19 P. Davison, "Matadors on Horns of a Dilemma," The Independent (U.K.), 12 Feb. 1994.