WHY IS BULLFIGHTING.. not in vogue? the pageantry/gracefullness/s...

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SUE

I enjoy going to a bullfight as much as any sporting event that I don't know the details and fine points of. I really don't understand what's going on down there all that much. But most people object to the cruelty toward the animal. And they don't see the rest of it.

I think it's something everyone should TRY to experience, once in their travels, if only to be able to say they have done it.

Most of us DON'T really appreciate the fine points. The style, the difference between matadors, etc., because we aren't exposed to it.

Em x

style....the cruelty! Many people find it sickening in this day and age to gain pleasure and entertainment from the suffering of another living creature! It is why we dont do the Gladiator thing anymore either!

wormy

I went to a bullfight in Pamplona during the Fiesta de San FermÃn (the famous "running of the bulls") to see exactly what happens during this much-debated, cultural practice. It made me so sad.
The bull is stabbed at the back of the head with three "knives" that have long sticks hanging off them, which move then the bull moves and twist the knives stuck into (and left in) its neck. Sometimes they don't get the knives in properly the first time, and only stab the bull, and then have to try again.
The bull is taunted and encouraged to charge the horses the bandelleros ride (which are protected and are usually ok), which is to weaken his neck muscles so he'll be more docile for the matador (that's how the man next to us explained it to me, and is also what's written on the Wikipedia page about it (in English)).
Then the bull is taunted with the capes in an attempt to make it fall down. Since his neck muscles are so tired and he's been losing blood from the back of his head for quite some time, this is not hard to do. Eventually, when the bull can no longer stand, the matador sticks a sword into the back of its head, attempting to sever the spinal cord. This sword often misses severing the spinal cord completely, but nicks it enough that the bull is paralyzed... but is conscious and is NOT DEAD.
The bull's horns are then tied with a rope and the bull is dragged around the ring (but his head, obviously), leaving a bloody trail. He is finally taken out of the ring and killed properly, where the public cannot see it.
The anti-bullfighting movement is not just hippies who love animals, it is made up mainly of normal people who are appalled that humans would torture an animal and call it "sport" and "culture". Honestly, it is neither of those things.

frangul

Cruelty to animals is not in good stead. On the same plane as dog fighting.

s&m

i know bull fighting is a tradition in spain but i think it is cruel. we do not have the right to treat animals that way.

Carousel

Bullfighting is a Spanish culture and to many it is distasteful. There is enough killing in the world without portraying it in Vogue. Many Spanish people find it abhorrent these days. I live in Spain.

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