# El Toro and the Vaseline **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-toro-and-the-vaseline/72758 "2001-07-17T03:11:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-toro-and-the-vaseline/72758/1 "2001-07-17T03:11:08Z")
I read a letter-to-the-editor from out of my local paper today. In it, an animal lover complaining about the newspaper “glorifying” the “sport” of bullfighting, wrote: > [@](#): > > Before being forced into the ring, the bull has most likely had vaseline forced into its eyes … Why is my bull\*\*\*\* meter clanging away on this one? Years ago, when I was a lot more “activist” than I am now, I’d have believed this hook, line and sinker. But now … I checked the Net. Most of the sites brought up by “bullfighting” and “vaseline” on Google were those of the animal-rights crowd. One was from a Spanish group. But none provided concrete evidence. Some Norweigen bullfighting group (I think) called Pena Taurina Noruega had this to say on their site: > [@](#): > > The matador takes his stance and raises the muleta, watching to ensure that the bull is focused on the lure. (That truth impugns claims by anti-taurinos that Vaseline is rubbed into the bull’s eyes, prior to entering the arena. The last thing that any matador would want to receive > is a bull with faulty vision. Such would cause the toro to attack by Braille, and dramatically increase the danger that the animal presents.) Sounds very logical. And leaves me with a question: do the Spanish truly apply vaseline (or petroleum jelly, same thing) to the eyes of the bulls before the ring? I loathe bullfighting myself. IMHO, it’s a pointless anachronism. But – hey – I’m a doper, and I fight ignorance. Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-toro-and-the-vaseline/72758/2 "2001-07-17T03:46:39Z")
Was this your link? [http://home.online.no/~engebakk/pena/english/lyn6.htm](http://home.online.no/~engebakk/pena/english/lyn6.htm) This makes sense to me. Cattle have terrible eyesight to begin with. [http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/nasd/docs2/as63600.html](http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/nasd/docs2/as63600.html) > [@](#): > > Beef, swine, and dairy cattle are generally color blind and have poor depth perception, which results in an extreme sensitivity to contrasts. This sensitivity may make an animal balk if a shadow is across their path. > > \ > > Animals are frightened or spook easily because they are very sensitive to noise and will always try to move away from the direction or source of the noise. Their eyesight problems may cause them to crash against or through any objects (including humans!) that may be in their path of escape. This is why you can make cattle stay on the other side of those fake painted-onto-the-road cattle guards. I’d think that if a bull found his eyesight further obscured, he’d either balk and refuse to budge, or like the link said, “attack by Braille”. This, in addition to the fact that the “vaseline in eyes” factoid only seems to be repeated on anti-bullfighting websites, makes me think it’s probably an UL. And anyway, having Vaseline in your eye doesn’t obscure your vision that much, does it? You ever use Vaseline to remove eye makeup? [http://www.chennaionline.com/style/Beautytrends/eyes.asp](http://www.chennaionline.com/style/Beautytrends/eyes.asp) > [@](#): > > You can also use vaseline and cotton pads to remove the make-up. Granted, you’re gonna wipe your eyes, and the bull can’t. But if you did put a big glob of Vaseline on your eye, you’d just blink a whole lot and after a few minutes it would be blinked off, and melted off, onto your eyelashes, which is what they’re there for. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-toro-and-the-vaseline/72758/3 "2001-07-17T05:42:23Z")
**DDG** , my admiration for your logical train of thought continues to know no bounds. No, really! I mean that! Thanks for saying this is probably a UL. When I was a baby, one of my startingly clear recollections is of lying in the cot, my chest had been coated with vaseline, and I dipped my fingers in it. Then rubbed my eyes. Man, did that snap my eyes open or what! I might just put in a reply to that letter tonight. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-toro-and-the-vaseline/72758/4 "2001-07-18T00:44:36Z")
Umm, cows and bulls don’t have eyesight nearly as bad as has been described… they can recognize individual people (like the ones they know) from just as far away as you can. They’d need descent eyesight because they don’t really have any defense other than running once they hear/smell something bad - gotta know where to run or run from. However, that’s not really what the question was. I don’t think you’d need to rub anything in a bull’s eyes either; they’re already at quite a disadvantage. They will be scared and disoriented, plus getting mad from all the noise and hassling. Also, they’ve never had experience “fighting” people either. There’s more than one reason they kill the thing after the fight… by the next time it will know how the matadores react and move, and would probly have a much better chance of catching them; can’t have that!! ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-toro-and-the-vaseline/72758/5 "2001-07-18T01:07:18Z")
The vaseline in the eyes is pure, unadulterated BS. A bull with impaired vision would be much less likely to charge. Seeing that aficionados and matadors alike are always complaining “they don’t make them like they used to” and they don’t charge like they used to, this would be counterproductive for everybody. They want the bulls to charge more, not less. In Spain bullfighting is heavily regulated and any such manipulation of the bulls would be severely punished. The only thing I have heard of is shaving the bull’s horns a tad shorter. This does not hurt or anything and the bull is not even aware, so it feels the tips are a bit further out than they really are and this diminishes (albeit very slightly) the chance of the bullfighter getting gored. It is illegal and whoever is caught doing it will be fined.