Madam, – The goring of spectators at a bullfight in northern Spain (Breaking News, August 19th) should serve as another reminder that this sickening cruelty is permitted in a part of the European Union.
While the injuries inflicted by the bull are shocking, is it appropriate that in the 21st century we still have public events in which animals are literally tortured to death as they once were in the ancient coliseum? I cannot help thinking of this incident as the bull’s revenge for decades of horrific abuse by human beings for their twisted pleasure and entertainment.
I hope it encourages other parts of Spain to follow the example of the Catalonian parliament’s recent decision to ban bullfighting. Unfortunately, the promoters of this barbarism are powerful people and will continue to glamorise the corrida de toros, fostering the erroneous impression that the activity revolves around a brave matador fighting a bull, risking his life in the pursuance of a glorious time-honoured tradition.
The reality is different. The bulls are weakened prior to entering the ring and then repeatedly stabbed with spears and lances before the hero in his splendid costume and swishing cape gets to plunge his sword into its pain-racked, exhausted body.
It will be a step forward for civilisation when this practice is consigned to the pages of a sorry past, along with our own shameful and equally indefensible tradition of live hare coursing, in which innocent animals are also terrorised for fun in public spectacles.
Apart from the suffering endured by the animals, this form of cruelty debases the people who facilitate or participate in it. As the supposedly higher beings on this planet, we surely ought to know better. What the bull did to fans at the Spanish arena was a pale imitation of the savagery we humans mete out to bulls and other animals in the name of “sport”. – Yours, etc,