I consider bullfighting to be unpleasant, but far, far less cruel than factory farming.
Re strapping the bull’s balls, I’m wondering if some people are confusing castration methods and bullfighting. There’s bullfighting, there’s cowfighting and there’s even calffighting (what do you call 2yo calves in English?), but steers are not fought pretty much by definition; one of their names in Spanish is mansos, the meek ones. Those know perfectly well what the game is about and that their role in it doesn’t include running after anything (even when they “run”, they are more likely to trot along than dash).
If I were a vegan, I might be able to condemn bullfighting without being a hypocrite. But since I am a proud carnivore, I cannot. I have no problem with bullfighting, and have even enjoyed attending a few.
I like a good bullfight, there’s a combination a courage, art, and death like no other thing.
Yeah, it’s gruesome and I completely understand if someone doesn’t like it.
No good matador wants a bull with vaseline on their eyes. You need the bull to strike as true as possible so the will follow the cape.
Needles would make for a tired bull and a terrible fight. You need the bull in the best possible shape. A tired bull that won’t run makes for a terrible fight.
Bulls that don’t strike true, that don’t run, and that get tired are sent back, not killed.
I don’t support animal cruelty in any way, but there are much more cruel things that are done to animals every day and no one seems to care.
Oh, they’re killed all right… but by a butcher, they’re not pardoned and it’s very bad business for the brand.
I voted “should be banned” because fuck all cultural traditions that involve animal cruelty.
Cockfighting & bear-baiting used to be Western cultural traditions too.
And “worse than factory farming” is irrelevant, since I’m not in favour of that, either, it’s no counterargument.
You’re saying nobody cares about animal cruelty?
Even when I was not a vegetarian, I despised bull-fighting. Also, it’s not equivalent to butchering an animal for food. After all, the entire intent of bull-fighting is to run the animal through agony. The presumption (at least for an ethical slaughterhouse) is that the animal will be dispatched with a minimum of pain.
The cruelty of industrial meat isn’t so much in the slaughter, it’s in the whole treatment of the animals before that day.
Ending factory farming would entail a major shift in what people eat, how much meat is available to the non-wealthy, and general logistics. Not saying it shouldn’t be done - I make the effort to only buy free-range eggs, humane meat, etc - but it would take a lot of work. Ending (the crueler varieties of) bull-fighting would entail finding something better to do with your Saturday afternoons.
I live in Calgary where the Stampede along with its rodeo and chuckwagon racing are part of the cultural identity. A cultural identity with hardly a hundred years of history unlike Spain’s centuries.
Most people here would dismiss Spanish bullfighting as outright animal cruelty but are openly annoyed and offended when the Humane Society and other animal rights groups call out the rodeo and chuckwagon races as cruelty to animals. It’s different when its your sport someone is criticising.
I am of the opinion that the rodeo is unnecessarily cruel to many of the animals involved for their simple excuse of providing some pretty crappy entertainment. I’m not so sure I see the chuckwagon races as cruel as I suspect the horses really love it, even though several of them die every year in pileups.
As others have mentioned there is a much greater volume of animal cruelty in factory farming and other institutions. I was vegetarian for many years for this reason.
I don’t go to the Stampede Rodeo or Chuckwagon races. I’m not going to go to a bullfight or anything like it. I only buy free range eggs and try to get cruelty free meat but I’m less diligent about that.
It’s complicated and very few of us live lives that don’t contribute to the suffering of others in some way.
I voted for the first option, because sure, banning it is a good idea in my book, but I don’t have quite the level of unique disgust over it as described in the poll – even limiting it to just animal issues, I would be for banning it as well as banning other practices that are just as cruel to animals, and probably impact more animals in actual numbers.
Spaniard here. I voted for “couldn’t care less”. Anyway, the tradition is on the wane. Less and less bullfights are being staged in Spain; more and more Spanish people are against the tradition. The whole thing is dying a natural death; in time it will disappear.
And when it disappears, say goodbye to the cattle that was used for the fights. Among existing cattle varieties, it is one of the closest to the ancient aurochs. And it is utterly unsuitable for “normal” cattle farming - too aggressive and bad-tempered. As soon as bullfights die, the cattle dies as well. Ship the existing animals to the butcher and stop raising it. Perhaps a few could be kept in zoos.
FWIW, fighting cattle is left to roam for five years, basically in freedom (there is no way you can shepherd those things, or keep them in corrals), before being shipped for fights.
But that is how things are.
I think that bullfighting is wrong, just like I think whale hunting and other animal slaughter (for cultural or not) is wrong. But I cannot dictate one thing as acceptable and another as unacceptable. We raise livestock in horrific conditions and slaughter them to feed us. Scientists experiment on animals every day. Cockfighting, dogfighting, rodeos, etc. People go trophy hunting for animals and don’t use the carcass. Where do we draw the line? Thinking broader, a lot more than just Bullfighting needs to change.
In my opinion, we can (or should) draw the line at the level where we feel we can actually make the change. Once that’s done, we move the line back a little further. This exact issue is the reason why people who work in animal rescue/rights fight amongst each other almost more than their causes. We can’t agree on how to solve the problem so we waste time, money, and energy arguing with each other.
Here’s an example: I see a clear line between sadism and neglect. But lots of animal welfare people see those as the same thing: the animal suffers in the end either way. That’s true, but if you want to solve the problem, in my opinion we need to split an enormous problem into small solutions that add up. Otherwise the problem will never be solved because we’re too intimidated by the scope of the problem.
I’ve got no problems with killing animals for food. I’m not going to feel bad for the bull if he ends up in my cheeseburger. But no bloodsports. That’s just indulging cruelty. It still makes me mad that the NFL didn’t ban Michael Vick after he was arrested for running a dogfighting ring.
And then there’s Thai bullfighting, which loses the matador and pits two bulls against each other a la cockfighting. This occurs only in the far southern provinces on the peninsula, nowhere else in the country. It was supposedly introduced by Portuguese traders in the 16th century.
I think it’s shameful. The bulls’ mothers raised them better than that. If two bulls have a disagreement that needs to be resolved, there’s no reason they can’t deal with it like adults.
I take a similar position wrt MMA and UFC.
Odds are for the bull, especially in a non-lethal (para el toro) fight. Keep it as a seasonal spectator sport and spare the bull any un-necessary pain. Adherents will counter by attacking various rodeo events, wherein animals are hurt intentionally.