When a matador is learning, he will practice with a person who impersonates the bull. It's "much nicer to do that if [the bull stand-in] can hold a set of horns," he added. Regardless of whether the bull enters the ring, it will die except in the case of a pardon , and its meat will be sold.
Animal-rights activists protest what they consider to be the brutal spectacle and cruel nature of the bull's death, as a crowd of thousands did in Madrid on Sept. Some argue that the life of a fighting bull has advantages over that of a cow or steer raised expressly for beef production.
Ashley P. Taylor is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. As a science writer, she focuses on molecular biology and health, though she enjoys learning about experiments of all kinds. In addition to science, Ashley loves music, dance and language in all its wide possibilities.
Live Science. He shows me the dry hay that is holding them over until the autumn rains turn the dusty ground to meadow, the sheaths on their horns to stop them from hurting each other, and the vet's surgery where they go when they're sick. He and his brother started this ranch 12 years ago with a bohemian notion of devoting their lives to something they love.
Spain's economic crisis has put the squeeze on ranchers - the number of bullfights fell by a third between and - and even put some ranchers out of business. Antonio survives by raising beef cattle as well, and ploughing the profits from them back into the bulls. The economy has begun to turn around, but bullfighting is facing a new challenge. Animal rights activists and their allies did well in local elections earlier this year.
They're promising to stop public funding for bullfighting. The exact sums are disputed - fans say bullfighting generates jobs and tax revenue - but public cash is clearly important. Spain's national minister in charge of bullfighting, Fernando Benzo, tells me, "It is a problem. You cut the money, you don't have bullfights. I have to admit that. He says he has no power to tell local governments how to spend their money, but he's confident the tradition, like Antonio's studs, will survive.
What they do not reveal is that the bull never has a chance to defend himself, much less survive. Many prominent former bullfighters report that the bull is intentionally debilitated with tranquilizers and laxatives, beatings to the kidneys, petroleum jelly rubbed into their eyes to blur vision, heavy weights hung around their neck for weeks before the fight, and confinement in darkness for hours before being released into the bright arena.
A well-known bullfight veterinarian, Dr. Manuel Sanz, reports that in more than 90 percent of bulls killed in fights had their horns "shaved" before the fight. Horn shaving involves sawing off several inches of the horns so the bull misses his thrusts at the altered angle. The matador, two picadors on horses, and three men on foot stab the bull repeatedly when he enters the ring.
After the bull has been completely weakened by fear, blood loss, and exhaustion, the matador attempts to make a clean kill with a sword to the heart.
Unfortunately for the suffering bull, the matador rarely succeeds and must make several thrusts, often missing the bull's heart and piercing his lungs instead.
Often a dagger must be used to cut the spinal cord and spare the audience the sight of a defenseless animal in the throes of death. The bull may still be fully conscious but paralyzed when his ears and tail are cut off as the final show of "victory.
Mexican bullfighting has an added feature: novillada, or baby bullfights. But it also makes a spectacle out of the cruel killing of an animal. Should tourists boycott bullfights? I don't know. Of course, even attending a bullfight is controversial among animal rights enthusiasts. I've always been ambivalent about the spectacle, thinking that as a travel writer, I need to report on what exists, rather than judge it and support a boycott.
When the event is kept alive by the patronage of tourists, I'll reconsider my reporting. Portugal has its own version of bullfighting. The biggest difference is what I think of as Toro's Revenge: The matador is brutalized along with the bull. In Act I of a Portuguese tourada , the horseman cavaleiro skillfully plants four beribboned barbs in the bull's back while trying to avoid the leather-padded horns.
The horses are the short, stocky Lusitano breed, with excellent balance. With testosterone sloshing everywhere, the leader taunts the bull — slapping his knees and yelling, "touro! As he hangs onto the bull's head, his buddies pile on, trying to wrestle the bull to a standstill.
Finally, one guy hangs on to o touro 's tail and "water-skis" behind him. Unlike the Spanish corrida de toros, the bull is not killed in front of the crowd at the Portuguese tourada …but it is killed later. Some brave bulls with only superficial wounds are spared to fight another day.
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