Today marks the final day of the Spanish festival of San Fermin, a nine-day festival held since 1591. Tens of thousands of foreign visitors descend on Pamplona, Spain each year for revelry, morning bull-runs and afternoon bullfights. Although the tradition of bullfighting remains strong in Pamplona, opposition from animal rights groups remains high, and the parliament of the nearby Spanish province of Catalonia will soon be voting on a motion to outlaw bullfighting altogether. One new recent restriction in Pamplona – no vuvuzelas allowed. Sale of the noisy horns has been banned by the local government. Collected here are several photos of this years events in Pamplona, Spain. (40 photos total)
I’ve never been to a bullfight and, while I think it is cruel and probably should be abandoned, I would like to go once. I tried to talk my colleague into it when we were in Madrid, but he’d seen one and wouldn’t go to another.
I haven’t seen a bullfight in person yet, but I know something about them and have read part of Hemingway’s “Death in the Afternoon.”
My opinion: yes, it’s atavistic, but it’s magnificent.
Putting the cruelty issue aside – have you seen how cattle are treated at feed lots and in the slaughterhouse? – you first have to consider the courage it takes to step into a ring (unarmed) with a large animal which is frequently very intent on killing you.
Yes, the picadores and banderilleros put barbs into the bull’s neck and shoulders to get the bull to lower it’s head, but the art of getting this amazing animal to pass close enough to get their blood on your suit (and not gore you enpassant) is breathtaking, and when the moment comes to kill the bull, a good toreador goes in over the horns (another chance to get gored) and the bull dies quickly.
The bull goes out fighting, and yes, it’s a rigged game, but it’s more noble than what takes place in a slaughterhouse, and more than occasionally, the bull gets the toreador.
It’s real life-and-death drama.
To get back to the cruelty issue, watch some documentaries of lions eating zebra alive and tell me how this is worse.
And I’ve gotta add: this whole running with the bulls thing is just plain idiotic. Maybe there should be a Darwin Award for stuff like this.