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Bloodless Bullfighting
houstonpress.com — Matadors fooled the bulls with their smoke-and-mirror red capes until the bulls were falling-down tired, then the matadors reached between the horns and snatched a velcro-attached rose from the bulls' back and voila, they were victorious and the crowd showered them with roses. Whatever. I just think those pink socks are cool.
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- Lucas123, on 07/08/2008, -9/+21Anything to keep them from slaughtering bulls in that inhumane manner.
- TsuruchiBrian, on 07/09/2008, -2/+4But it doesn't do that...
Having bloodless bullfights does not prevent other bullfights from killing bulls.
Furthermore while I don't personally care for bloodfull bullfights, I don't really feel morally qualified to tell other people not to kill bulls since I enjoy hamburgers and leather shoes. Bulls are made for fighting (thats why they do it). I think it is just as if not more inhumane to castrate a bull and force him to fatten up in a little cage until he's ready to become food and clothes.
If I were a bull, I'd rather fight. Also if you happen to kill or disable a matador you get to spend the rest of your life in a pasture grazing and mating.- danesis, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2you wear bull leather shoes?
- str3ama, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2"I don't really feel morally qualified to tell other people not to kill bulls since I enjoy hamburgers and leather shoes."
I understand your perspective, I don't do either so it's clear what my stance is on this. If you just ate meat, I'd say you still have a ground to condemn this sort of thing - because this is purely for entertainment, and while this may be bloodless they're still harassing the crap out of the bull. They taunt it by jabbing it and basically inflicting as much pain on it as possible to rile it into attacking the matador.
Anyone who enjoys that, even if there's no blood, doesn't really have grounds to argue about any humanity issues, let alone abuse issues IMO. - ffttoteof, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Before the bull even meets the matador, the picadors come out on horseback and stab a long spear into the back of the bull's neck, to rile it up and make it lose blood.
(It used to be that the horses were unprotected and frequently got disemboweled by the bulls during this process. Today the horses wear armor because I guess people feel more sympathy for the horses than the bulls.)
Then the bandilleros come out. They have these short sticks with barbed hooks on the ends of them. They stick them into the bulls back, where they get stuck and then flop around as the bull runs, pulling and ripping at the skin but not falling out. Imagine how painful this must be. The short sticks have colorful little flags on them.
Then, only after they've really tuckered the bull out and he's lost a lot of blood, does he face the matador. The matador basically makes the bull keep running until the bull's visibly tired and half the time doesn't even charge when provoked anymore. At this point the matador feels it's safe to try and kill the bull, which involves driving a long sword into the hump on his back and directly into his heart.
More often than not, the matador has to take a few cracks at this, getting the spear in half way or not in the right place. Stab, stab, stab! Bull's still alive! Lots of times, the bull falls over, exhausted, but not dead because the matador can't finish him off. So they have to run up with knives and stab him in the back of the neck to cut the spinal cord which, also, has taken several attempts before getting it right every time I've seen it.
Maybe you think that castrating and fattening a bull up is just as cruel as all that. But I just wanted to make sure you had an idea of what goes on at a bullfight. - askantik, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I'm not here to judge anyone, because you all sound pretty intelligent (seriously, not being sarcastic), but you said that bullfighting was different because its "just for entertainment." But I have to ask you (again, just asking, not trying to be an ass), what is meat? It's just for the appetite, which is essentially the same thing as entertainment, because it's not necessary for us.
Not trying to say you're wrong, just saying that eating meat (for most people) is no more necessary than bullfighting.
- sodade, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3"Also if you happen to kill or disable a matador you get to spend the rest of your life in a pasture grazing and mating."
Seriously? That's pretty cool.- SimonTB, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Pretty cool? That's ***** awesome.
- ffttoteof, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3Not true. I've seen matadors be carried out of the ring on a stretcher and they just bring in another one to fight the bull.
According to "The Dangerous Summer" by Hemingway (who wrote a lot about bull fighting), seeing a bull do so well and be so beloved that he's "pardoned" is so rare that a real aficionado might never see it in his life.
- TsuruchiBrian, on 07/09/2008, -2/+4But it doesn't do that...
- da5idblacksun, on 07/08/2008, -2/+3Nice.
- Sidzilla, on 07/08/2008, -5/+19I like the thought of taking a traditional, cultural event and making it more humane.
- redcolumbine, on 07/08/2008, -1/+8A step in the right direction, I'd say. But I'd still prefer human-on-human sports like wrestling (REAL wrestling, not fixed Hollywood wrestling) for folks who are into that sort of thing.
- FuryOfThor, on 07/08/2008, -3/+16I don't think I ever want this to happen, but seeing some of the epic battles between lions and bears, bulls and crocodiles, tigers and elephants would have been awesome to see back in the Roman Coliseum. Glad they're taking a nonviolent route here, though.
- sodade, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Damn Romans had much better "circus" than we do now. I bet their bread wasn't as good though...
- Surferess, on 07/08/2008, -5/+5Hey, as long as you get to shout "Ole!" what more could you want! I like it.
- netgeek06, on 07/08/2008, -3/+2Those pink socks horrible on my legs.
- quakken, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I think that that comment makes even less sense then you intended.
- damian7, on 07/09/2008, -11/+5Pussies.
- publiclurker, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3I'd say it takes a lot more guts to go into the ring without a sword than with one.
- BlaqReaper, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1Can you go head to head with a bull?...exactly
- GoKings, on 07/09/2008, -1/+5Photo #2
"Mendoza's Suit of Lights is da *****." Nice description... - pianonotes1010, on 07/09/2008, -15/+2This is a mockery. To actually see the traditional bullfighting event is utterly incredible. Christ, all these pussies of the world are really ***** things up.
- GoKings, on 07/09/2008, -2/+11Pussies are the ones that watch the bull get tired out even though it has no chance of winning, and then stabbing it for the enjoyment of the crowd. Even if he gores the matador, he's still going to get killed. Those are the pussies that get their kicks and feel empowered by watching them get killed. Those are the real pussies.
- DeathJux, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Dugg for pussies.
- UltraDavid, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3"...pussies of the world are really *****..."
Not quite enough for my tastes, friend. Not quite enough indeed.
- GoKings, on 07/09/2008, -2/+11Pussies are the ones that watch the bull get tired out even though it has no chance of winning, and then stabbing it for the enjoyment of the crowd. Even if he gores the matador, he's still going to get killed. Those are the pussies that get their kicks and feel empowered by watching them get killed. Those are the real pussies.
- LoveWidescreen, on 07/09/2008, -7/+6A centuries-old tradition meets the hyper-sensitivity of the politically correct crowd. Well, at least the whole tradition of bullfighting hasn't been obliterated.
And this was done in the USA! Political correctness and animal rights? Here? Nawwwwwww......- UltraDavid, on 07/09/2008, -2/+8Yeah, normal people are totally cool with bulls being gouged with swords and bleeding to death and getting sworded once more right in their brains. Sensitive people? Also cool with it. It's when you get to the realm of the hyper-sensitives that people stop being cool with the flamboyant killing of an animal for the sake of fleeting public spectacle. Don't even get me started on the ultra-super-sensitivity of the anti-puppy-dog-eating crowd, those guys could feel a pea through thirty mattresses.
- pyranose, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3Yes, because it's much more humane to slaughter them in automated meat factories afterwards. At least in the traditional Corrida, the bull had a slim chance of taking a human with it.
- rohcky, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2People eat bull?
- GREEDOnvrFIRED, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3Wow someone who likes the pink sock. What a sicko.
- stinkypyper, on 07/09/2008, -0/+11I just got back from Cabo San Lucas and while I was there I saw a bullfight and two of the matadors got injured. It rarely rains down -- it's crazy desert -- there and what do you know, it rains during the bull fight, the announcer said this was the first they ever did it in the rain. The bull was clearly agitated by the water and the matadors were slipping in the mud. First one matador got a royal set of horns when he lost his footing, the bull gave him the full air toss over it's head, then tried goring him on the ground. The other one ran over to distract the bull and ended getting the exact same treatment. The fight ended with them jumping the barriers and hobbling/limping away. Bull FTW.
- godcomplex, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5Do they pink sock the bulls after they are done?
- stabbingkittens, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3That's brilliant if the crowd like it. There's no place for such cruelty anymore, but it's fantastic to see the tradition has been upheld. This place would be too boring without such vibrant culture - I'd love to run with the bulls, even though they get ***** up in the process. Orwell called it doublethink.
- zeex, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3photo 7 "Jesus Mata likes Texas." ...Jesus Mata means "Jesus kills"(in Spanish and Portuguese), that's the most awesome name ever!
("mata" also means some kind of small forest in Portuguese)- UltraDavid, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I was just about to post this! Hot times.
- RobotLeAwesome, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2are they having sex with the bulls now too?
- mikeophile, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Since matador means "killer", are these guys really matadors?
Perhaps the pink socks are considered killer fashion sense? - ElGanyan, on 07/09/2008, -6/+7Way to go America. Take yet another foreign tradition and bastardize it beyond all recognition until it fits your clearly superior morals and standards and then turn around and attempt to repackage and sell it as authentic. Forget the swords and flowers, let's take it to the next level and hand out dildos so you can all stuff each others fat vaginas while patting yourselves on the back for what a better place you are making the world.
I don't care for bullfighting one way or the other, but this is just ridiculous.
/buryme- Genthree, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3Wow, someone forgot to eat their wheaties this morning...
- BertEatsDirt, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1Traditions are not sacred things that are set in stone and never to be questioned. There was a time where that tradition was not around, and there are plenty of traditions that have vanished from the Earth. We should always question the things we do and make sure it's a good idea for us to continue to do them. Also, "foreign" is a social construct, a human-invented rule, an illusion that you may or may not choose to abide by. Humans tormenting & killing wild animals for fun is the same thing whether it originated in my country or another country, I definitely have the right to comment on & criticise what other humans are doing if their behaviour violates my own sense of decency. I would protest loudly if my fellow Australian human beings devised a new national sport called "punch the kangaroo in the face until it bleeds", and I will protest loudly against traditions I find offensive that originate from human beings in other geographical locations!
- ElGanyan, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2That's all fine and dandy but you missed my point. I'm not against people criticizing something they find objectionable or wanting to "advance" our ideals and cultures. I'm just sick of the US feeling they have to police the world, let alone the cultures of the world. Everything they import into their culture from afar has to be blunted and pasteurized to the point of non-recognition for what it once was. I'd rather see the tradition die out completely than be reduced to some fat Americans prancing around, plucking roses from betwixt a bulls horns calling themselves "matadors" and clumsily shouting "Olé." If it's to be made a complete mockery of, or to be thrown into the corporate grinder to be spat out as something palatable and marketable to such a softened and gullible market than I feel very adamant about defending that tradition no matter how objectionable.
- borez, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Dugg for the concept... but not the slide show crap.
- Memnochxx, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Pink socks aren't cool, they're gross. Sicko.
- finscoe, on 07/09/2008, -3/+4This is a bastardization of a centuries old Spanish custom! While I understand that there are some people who would prefer not to see a bull killed for sport in front of them, it's as simple as not buying a ticket. Having lived in Spain and witnessed a number of bullfights (as well as reading Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon - his treatise on bullfighting) I can say that this is not true bullfighting, this is watered-down American entertainment. ***** you PETA!
- ffttoteof, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I think it's not just the killing the bull that Americans (and Europeans, I've lived over here 5 years now) find so objectionable about bull fighting. It's the scaring the bejesus out of an animal that's not smart enough to know what's going on just for our entertainment. It's the alleged sanding of the tips of their horns to increase sensitivity and make the bull reluctant to use them. It's the torturing it first with spears and bandilleros. It's the several failed attempts to properly drive in the sword at the end. (This is common unless you're watching a really good matador.) It's the repeated stab-stab-stabbing with the knife to finally try and sever the spinal cord when the bull can no longer stand. (Also common.)
It's horrible and barbaric and the fact that it's a tradition and Hemingway liked it doesn't excuse it.
And yes, I've seen lots of them. It's horrible to watch but I've gone back a few times because it's the only thing I've ever seen that keeps me on the edge of my seat, knowing that with each charge the matador could get his belly ripped open. I've seen some carried out on stretchers. It's exhilarating.
But I don't want to see any more because I feel too bad about what happens to the bull.
And no, it's not as simple as "not buying a ticket" if you're at all concerned about the quality of life in the world in which you live.
- ffttoteof, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I think it's not just the killing the bull that Americans (and Europeans, I've lived over here 5 years now) find so objectionable about bull fighting. It's the scaring the bejesus out of an animal that's not smart enough to know what's going on just for our entertainment. It's the alleged sanding of the tips of their horns to increase sensitivity and make the bull reluctant to use them. It's the torturing it first with spears and bandilleros. It's the several failed attempts to properly drive in the sword at the end. (This is common unless you're watching a really good matador.) It's the repeated stab-stab-stabbing with the knife to finally try and sever the spinal cord when the bull can no longer stand. (Also common.)
- auricomnet, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Shes hot
- SkateItsGreat, on 07/09/2008, -4/+0America finds fault in killing bulls, but they pay for the slaughter of humans with minimal resistance. The amount of soldiers deployed in lands that don't belong to us clearly shows we are the biggest terrorists out there.
- JointVenture, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Do they still slaughter the bull and give the meat to the people?
- BertEatsDirt, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1It's great they're not stabbing it afterwards, but they're still taking a bull out of its natural environment and messing with it for the gratification of the crowd. There are plenty of ways to provide entertainment for a crowd that don't involve confusing & agitating wild animals. If it's live action you want check out something like Cirque Du Soleil - you get all the thrill & excitement of people putting themselves in dangerous situations, but all the performers are human beings who are choosing to be there and are just as thrilled by the performance as the spectators are.
- BECoole, on 07/09/2008, -3/+4This is for pussies & queers. ***** PETA!
- str3ama, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I'll admit it's a step up, but bullfighting in my opinion is a ***** up perversion. How sick do you have to be that you turn to seeing a living creature be tormented, harassed, tortured and needlessly provoked into a fight purely for entertainment. Honestly if you can accept that as a means of entertainment, I don't see why you would have an objection to dog fighting, or a Running Man type event.
- RRJackson, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1What we need are a return to the gladiatorial games. Maybe with a regular ol' bloody bullfight to pass the time between sessions of feeding Scientologists to the lions.
- 003pintu, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0ya they r really cool!
- MightyAphrodity, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1lol, i want pink socks!
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