Bullfighting: What society has painted it as

We all know the cartoon. The matador stands in front of the bull with a red flag, each staring each other down. Finally, the bull charges, and the matador moves out of the way, leaving the bull to go through the flag, left completely bamboozled. That’s how we all thought, and wish it was. In truth, though, it’s bloody, tortuous maiming. All the way from the matadors, third of lances and third of flags; the reality of bullfighting is horrific, and people are starting to notice.

Realities of bullfighting

Bullfighting goes down in three phases: Third of Lances, Third of Flags and Third of Death. The Third of Lances is where you have someone sitting on an armored horse, with a lance, and has to stab the bull in the shoulder and neck until there is almost a clear hole. The point of this is to impair the bull from looking up and defending itself, and it also weakens the bull and makes him exhausted. This causes an extensive amount of bleeding, which is probably hard to watch for most.

The second stage is the Third of Flags. This is where three guys come out with banderilleros, which are two sticks that have metal points. They have to stick the bull in the shoulders, which further exposes the inside of the shoulder, and also further exhausts the bull and increases bleeding.

Then, the final stage, the Third of Death. This is where the matador finally faces the bull. He is tasked with stabbing the bull, you guessed it, through the shoulder. This time, however, he goes straight for the heart of the bull. Supposedly, it is done this way for a “painless death” for the bull. This is considered art, to the crowd of people. If the matador doesn’t cleanly stab the bull in the heart the first time, he is usually booed from the entire crowd.

Groups standing out against bullfighting

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an obvious voice on the side of bull protection. With PETA, fortunately, people are starting to realize the mutilation of the so-called “sport.” Bullfighting has been banned in at least 100 towns in Spain. The region of Catalonia banned the “sport” after officials were presented with the signatures of 180,000 residents demanding an end to the carnage. Countries that have banned bullfighting by law are: Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Italy and England.

This offers hope that these animals will get the love and treatment they deserve.

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