What happens in a bullfight
A revealing description of the behind-the-scenes atrocities of a bullfight.
Bullfights: The facts
Under the excuse that bullfights are "art" and a "tradition", bullfights thrive on tourists to maintain it, when in reality it just comes down to a so-call "artist" - clown alike with tights and shiny sequels with a sword and a red cape -, "fighting" a helpless abused animal who doesn't even have a theoretical chance of winning ...
The people behind this very violent and cruel spectacle pretend to maintain this horrific business to satisfy a sadistic minority for money.
If this is a no-win situation for the bull, then it is not "fighting", but plain and simple torture, not Tradition, nor Culture. Bullfights are actually held in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Portugal and France. Mexico has the biggest bullring in the world, with capacity for over 60,000 people!
What goes on behind the bullfights
Most people are unaware of the facts behind the bullfights, all the torture that the bulls are exposed to "prepare" them for the "valiant matador". To start with, the bullfight bull is not a natural breed, but a crossbreed created especially for this purpose. The bulls are herbivorous, myopic and are released in the bullring only after:
- The animal is kept for a couple of days in a dark room, without water nor food to weaken it
- The animal is hit with a sack of wet sand on his ribs and kidneys. This method is known among the bullfighters as "bajar al toro'' (weaken the bull)
- Vaseline is added into his eyes to cloud the vision
- Cotton is stuck in the bulls nose holes and throat to make it difficult to breathe
- Quite often, the tip of the bull horns get shaved off, so they would not represent a big threat to the "brave" matador
- Laxatives are given to the bulls to make them weaker
- If the bull is too weak after all these "treatments", then thinner (turpentine), is dropped on his hooves and genitals, so when the bull appears on the ring kicking and jumping, it is not because he is "furious" and "brave", but because he feels that his hooves and genitals are burning with pain
- Often these people stab the bull testicles with knitting needles, to make them look "wilder and aggressive"
- To complete their evilness, often has been reported that the wooden door that slides in an upward motion to release the tortured bull into the ring, is released to make it fall onto the bull's head, fissuring their skull just before going into the arena.
Let's not forget about the horses
The horses used in the bullfights are old ones, and after they have served all their lives in a faithful way to the ungrateful mankind, they are sold for few bucks to the bullfight industry.
The first thing that happens, is that their vocal cords are mutilated without any anaesthetic, so when the bulls approach them, they cannot neigh in fear, especially after been wounded by the bull horns. This is done so that the audience doesn’t get aware that the animals are suffering. When the bullfight is going to start, the horses by then mute, are blindfolded, and have Vaseline and cotton in their ears and nose holes, so without its senses, the horse's back is covered by a peto (sort of thin blanket), and the horse is ridden by the "picador", the man with the "puya', that is an iron triangle 3 cms thick in each side (this is supposed to be the only part to be stabbed), tied by a 11 cms long rope to a stick, but in reality the whole 11 cms of the rope and puya (14 cms), get inserted 3 to 4 times into the bulls back and moved in circles, so the bulls get 3 or 4 wounds, 14 cms deep and up to 45 cms of diameter !!!
As the bull tries to defend itself from the one who is causing him so much pain, the bull strikes, only to penetrate with its horns, the horse neck or stomach. If the horse doesn't die, it is taken into the inside of the plaza, where it's insides are inserted back into its stomach with hay to support it, then stitch it with rope or wire, without any anaesthetic, painkillers or antibiotics.
The horse is then sent back into the bullring to be ridden again until it drops dead. If by the end of the day the horse is still alive, it is slaughtered by the butcher behind the bullring and its meat is sold as dog food. Sometimes, up to 6 horses have been killed by one single bull.
The largest number of horses killed by a single bull, happened few decades ago, with 11 horses laid slowly dying on the bloody arena (I saw the picture years ago, and it was an horrific example of how far human evils are willing to go for some sick and sadistic profit).
After the picador is finished with its horrific "puya", comes the "banderillero", another heartless human who carries the dreadful "banderillas'' (wood sticks covered with colourful papers with a 5 cms long steel harpoon). These ones are stuck in the bull's neck and back muscles to weaken the bull. Each bull gets between four to six banderillas. With each movement of the bull, these harpoons rip off his muscles making it extremely painful.
After the banderillero finish his business, then comes the coward "matador", who exhausts the bull with a red cape. When the bull gets too weak, the matador gets the sword and attempts to stab the bull through its heart, but many times fails getting the lungs instead, so the bull starts to vomit blood. When this happens, the matador gets a small knife (puntilla), and stabs the bull through its spinal cord many times until the bull falls down.
But many times the bull doesn't die after the 40 to 45 minutes of torture in the bullring, because the puntilla often doesn't kill, but just paralyses the bull and later on when the bull is getting his skin rip off by the butcher, suddenly "awakens" and tries to run away.
In Spain alone, more than 30,000 bulls are killed this way every year. This is a sadistic business maintained by a handful of powerful people in all these countries, but you can make the difference by not attending this barbaric spectacles and not buying their souvenirs and magazines.
The barbaric ritual
Translations
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