Searchin' for the meaning of "higher education" in such places as Finland, Oxford, Portugal, South Africa, and Athens, Georgia, USA.
The (mis)adventures of academia, travel, culture, and the best cup of tea.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Gnarly Blood Sport: Bullfighting



Bullfighting in Spain is traditionally a cultural event, yet it has become a controversial topic...rightfully so! It is the cruelest "sport" I have laid my eyes on.

Here is an email I sent Charlie, "Can you believe I have tickets to the bull fight tomorrow? I thought it was a dude dancing around with a red scarf...but I did NOT know that they still actually KILL the bulls. WTF? What have I signed up for? Okay, before I judge, I must see it with my own eyes."

See it with my own eyes, I did. I also heard the bull moaning and the people clapping with my ears. So wrong! The bull suffered for a terrible 15 minutes as they continued to stick him in the spine with sharp sticks and the matador taunted the bull with the red cape. I took photos until I started to feel ill, then I turned away and snapped photos of the wooden seats...yeah, a great object to photograph, ha ha! Anything to take my mind off of the animal cruelty inherent in this blood sport. Marijke was braver than I was, as she watched the entire killing, but then said, "Okay, I do not think we need to see another killing." And, she was quiet for the rest of the evening. We arrived home (30 minutes after we had left) and Ali, in her nurturing way, fed us Spanish pastries and turned on an American comedy to take our thoughts away from the morbid experience.

3 comments:

Mama Weimer said...

Another experience for the books. I would fell the same way you did about this sport. Terrible sport!!! What is with the needless killing of a bull? Being the daughter of a cattle family it seems very inhumane.

fanatic4u2 said...

I am impressed that you even attended the fight at all. I could never! But as your mom says, it is an experience that you will never forget.

About Me said...

Yes, definitely an experience I will never forget. Now that I have seen it with my own eyes I am all of a sudden a bull activist.