Why is Bullfighting Still a Thing?
I understand cultural traditions, but I have ethical red lines that I won't cross.
Every year, approximately 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights.
Many people concerned about animal welfare are wondering how bullfighting is still legal in advanced countries like Spain and France. There are very vocal supporters of bullfighting who defend its centuries- or even millennia-long tradition.
In 2016, when Spain's constitutional court overturned the ban on bullfighting in Catalunya, they described the sport as “one more expression of a cultural nature that forms part of the common cultural heritage.”
This was made extremely clear when the conservative Partido Popular majority party moved that it was against the Spanish constitution for cities to create their own bans on bullfighting. Source: madridbullfighting.com
Organizations such as PETA and Humane Society International want to put an end to bullfighting in all forms, but in Spain at least, the sport has some very powerful advocates.
The aim of the matador is always to kill the bull, and a fight is only considered successful if it ends in the bull's death. During the final act of the event, the matador is given a time of 10 minutes during which to stab the bull between the shoulder blades, severing his spinal cord.
The bullfighting industry selectively breeds bulls to be more agitated and combative in order to “heighten the performance” of the vicious spectacle. Even so, bulls used for these events aren’t really “fighting”—they’re instinctually defending themselves from a threat, and they have no means of escaping from an arena, causing them even more distress.
In the hours leading up to a typical bullfight, humans confine bulls to tiny, dark isolation cells without any food or water. Right before the confused, anxious animals are forced into a ring, humans often stab them with a sharp harpoon called a divisa, further stacking the odds against them.
Source: PETA.org
As a travel advisor I have a number of ethical red lines that I won't cross, including activities that exploit animals - anything from a burro taxi to a bullfight, from a camel ride to swimming with dolphins.
My clients are free to do as they please, but - in this case - they would have to book their own tickets to a bullfight.