Bulls

Barbarism, yes, but art, no! Bullfighting: A tradition that must stop immediately. On the website of CRAC EUROPE COMITÉ RADICALEMENT ANTI CORRIDA, we learn, at least in large part, about the ordeal of bulls selected for this sordid and cruel execution.

BREEDING

During breeding, bulls are weaned with sticks equipped with metal tips in their nose to prevent them from nursing. They are branded with a hot iron, and ear marks are sometimes cut out with a knife for identification. Bulls may also be subjected to a daily forced-walking exercise in narrow corridors to harden their muscles, while enduring confinement and isolation from their peers.

TRANSPORT

Transporting bulls to bullfighting cities (in Spain, France, Portugal, or Latin America) is a painful ordeal. Torn from their natural and social environment, these animals are locked in wooden confinement crates of less than 2 m². Trips from southern Spain or breeding ranches (ganaderías) can last several days, and the animals have no possibility of moving. Sometimes, they are even made to travel on an inclined slope, which constantly strains their muscles to maintain balance. Beyond the resulting fatigue, they receive neither food nor water. Since transport takes place mainly during the summer season, some crowded animals lose up to 30 kg in overheated trucks. In 2001, several dehydrated bulls were found lifeless in these trucks. When they arrive at the arena, the bulls are then forced out of the livestock trailers with sticks and insults, with the exact same gentleness as during loading.

BEFORE THE \"FIGHT\"

Before the fight, certain parts of the animal's body are weakened. The horns are frequently sawed off by ten centimeters (blunting), and the sensitive nerve is then pushed back to the root or damaged, which is extremely painful and, moreover, causes the bulls to lose their spatial orientation. Massive doses of sedatives, tranquilizers, or anti-inflammatories are also administered to allow the bull to better withstand the pain it will suffer in the arena. The bulls, which have a precise mental image of the length of their horns before the mutilation, will therefore fail to touch their tormentors when they try to gore them, which significantly reduces the risk of injury for the matadors. Furthermore, as the bull's horns are rendered extremely sensitive and painful, it will hesitate to use them to push back its aggressors. During immobilization in the confinement crate (also used in slaughterhouses), the hooves can also be filed down or even incised. Wooden wedges are then inserted between the hooves or under the sole. This operation greatly destabilizes the animal, which will have trouble standing still and lose its pushing power.

THE SPECTACLE

You don't need to be at a bullfighting event to understand what really happens there: the methodical torture of a sentient animal.

• First act (The tercio de pique): In the first act, two picadors mounted on heavy, blindfolded horses plant piques (puyas) into the bull. Between the fourth and seventh dorsal vertebrae, the puyas sever the neck's elevator and extensor muscles, and between the fourth and sixth cervical vertebrae, they cut the neck ligaments. With each push of the bull, the pique sinks a little deeper, up to 20 cm thanks to a twisting movement exerted by the picador. This is called \"working the bull.\" Six to eight times in a row, the pique digs into and tears the animal's back. For the matador, the benefits of a \"job well done\" are enormous. Indeed, the bull can no longer raise its head and is forced to lower its guard during the various passes and demonstrations. All danger, or almost all, is eliminated. A fake effect of \"bravery\" is given by the impression that the bull is about to charge at any moment, when it is simply trying to escape intense pain.
• Second act (The tercio de banderillas): This step is generally presented as a simple game consisting of planting colorful accessories on the bull's back. Commonly called banderillas, these accessories are actually metal harpoons 5 or even 6 centimeters long, equipped with a sharp hook, adorned with paper banners that distract the public's attention. The shameful purpose of this \"game\" is to continue tearing the muscle tissue to drain the animal of part of its blood and weaken it permanently, while preventing it from suffering a fatal pulmonary congestion following the destructive \"work\" of the picador. The goal is to ensure that the bull does not give up and remains standing yet bloodless until the end of the show.
• Third act (The tercio de mort): The third act takes place in the vast majority of bullfights: so-called \"Spanish\" bullfights. The peons perform several more passes in front of the bull with their capes. They further stimulate the exhausted, bleeding animal. The matador attracts and directs the bull's charges using his muleta (the red cloth), further ridiculing and humiliating this poor, exhausted animal. He will then make it lower its head \"obediently\" in order to plunge his 80 cm sword into a withers that is already deeply bloody and destroyed. Death then appears as a deliverance... and the matador – killer in Spanish – as a savior to the ignorant public. But often, the weapon is poorly planted. It can exit through the flanks or pierce a lung, causing internal drowning. The victim then appears to vomit its blood and dies of slow, painful internal suffocation by hemorrhage. When the first sword strike does not kill quickly enough, a peon slips behind the victim and, with a quick gesture, withdraws the sword or uses a dagger of mercy (puntillazo). He then hands it back to the matador, who will repeat the execution if necessary. It sometimes happens that the bulls receive six to seven sword strikes, or even more! When the bull has the \"indecency\" not to fall immediately, which happens about once every three times, the killer finishes his sad task using a specific sword, the descabello, planted between the two horns to sever the spinal cord, or the puntillazo to lacerate the brain, leaving the animal paralyzed but fully conscious of its agony.

THE HORSES

When horses are used in the ring (wearing protective aprons called petos), they also experience intense stress, major psychological trauma, and fractured ribs due to the violent charges of the bulls they cannot escape. Historically and still today, despite protections, they are very often injured, disemboweled, or killed during these spectacles.