Three cheers for the Bull
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martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
I kinda feel about split about bull fighting. I've never been to one but it is a cultural thing in Spain so unsure if I'd like to see it banned. However when the bull does get its own back I do find myself cheering it on!
Howard
Senior Member
Cultural or not, it's a grim spectacle. It shouldn't even need to be banned - like fox hunting, it should be flippin' obvious that killing an animal for fun is just a horrendous thing to do.
It's nothing like fox hunting. Fox hunting is a means of controlling a pest. I like shooting game but I eat it. Am I a bad person for enjoying it?
BTW, bull fighting has been banned in various regions of Spain and other rgions are considering it
Panter
Just call me Chris...
- Location
- Sittingbourne, Kent
No it's not. Shooting is a way of controlling a pest, fox hunting is torturing animals for fun, just like bull fighting is.
Howard
Senior Member
To me, both Bull Fighting and Fox Hunting are activities which involve the unnecessarily drawn out demise of an animal for the enjoyment of those taking part and the spectators. I feel the pest control argument is a bit weak.
I don't know much about shooting game, but if it doesn't cause unnecessary suffering, and you aren't doing it mainly for fun, then probably not, no.
Note: where you draw the line at unnecessary is up to you - but to me, both bullfighting and foxhunting cross it.
In that case, I'd advise you not to watch a game shoot. We once stumbled across a grouse and pheasant shoot somewhere in Yorkshire. We saw birds that had been downed by a shotgun but evidently still alive: the shooter would often leave the bird twitching on the ground for some minutes whilst other birds were still being shot at. Shotguns are not at all accurate, even in the hands of a marksman! He didn't immediately send the dog to retrieve the creature, presumably because of risk to the dog. I believe that when the shooter did finally retrieve his quarry, he quietly dispatched it by wringing its neck, though I'm not sure about this (he wasn't making it obvious!). I left that scene feeling sick for a long time after.
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
Apparently the type of bull fighting in action here was a non fatal one for the bull. The objective was to get as close to the animal as possible without being harmed.
Not all bull fighting ends in the death of the bull.
Spectactular leap from a magnificent bull, but I think it's hardly fair to have a go at parents who have a badly injured child. Whilst Spaniards are by no means universally enthusiastic about the bullfight (partly because the Franco regime liked to big up its machismo as part of the national identity), the sort of attitude towards it you get on this thread is very uncommon, and I think it's a bit simplistic. The bullfight isn't a sport but a ritual killing, which at least has the decency to involve a bit of risk of to the participants and spectators as well as to the victim, and to celebrate and showcase the animal's magnificence, as well as its importance to people. The slaughter of animals is pretty central to most cultures including our own, and I'm not convinced we're in a position of moral superiority. It's all very well disapproving of it, as long as the people disapproving aren't munching away on intensively-farmed animal products at the same time...
Klaus
Senior Member
- Location
- High Wycombe
Howard
Senior Member
This one did. Apparently it was killed after being caught. And lots of fights do. These are the ones I have a problem with.
To me ritual killing = we killed it because we wanted to, in the way we wanted to, for our enjoyment. Seems a bit weird, at the least. Is there something I'm missing?
None of this detracts from my main problem with it: the animal is despatched in cruel and drawn out way. This is my problem with it. Couldn't they just hug the bull or something?!
Perhaps better put would be: with a shotgun you're more likely to hit the target, but less likely to kill it outright unless one of the pellets pierces a vital organ. It's a matter of chance.
Yes I think there is. I'm prepared to consider the possibility that the bullfight is a particularly cruel way to kill a bull, but it is by no means self-evident. They are aggressive animals in peak fighting condition - the method of killing is, among other things, a salute to the kind of animal the bull is. I also confess myself slightly impressed by the way the frank acknowledgement of the animal's death occupies a place of centrality in the culture. I think there's an inevitable hypocrisy in cultures that hide or sanitise their killing methods. And enjoyment is a complex phenomenon - the enjoyment derived from a bullfight does not necessarily equate to taking pleasure in the animal's suffering.
darkstar
New Member
Well it's in their culture, they are ought up with it. Now I don't agree with it whatsoever, it's a nasty 'sport' but you can't judge someone's morals because they have been bought up around something.
