Join the Campaign to Stop Bullfights Worldwide
Bulls are obviously male cows, with much thicker muscles and heads. They actually can’t see the colour ‘red’, this is just for show for the matador. They are intelligent animals that love to play, and also dislike loud noises. So you can imagine the stress of a baying crowd in a bullring.
Here at England, Naturally – we know that you don’t want to be distressed by gory images, so rest assured you won’t see any in this post. But bullfighting is absolutely horrific (bulls are chased around by a matador while they fight for their lives). Then are stabbed several times, their spinal cord is often severed, and some even drown in their own blood.
Some countries even ‘injure the bull’, which is then left to suffer overnight, before being killed in an abattoir the next day. And all this, due to a baying mob of spectators, cheering on the matador. For ‘fun’.
Think this is a Spanish thing? In fact, many cities in Spain have now banned bullfights on animal welfare grounds. Over half of all Spaniards are against bullfighting, with only a small minority still attending. So guess who is mostly supporting the industry? Yes, it’s mostly UK and North American tourists. So always boycott any firms that promote bullfights to tourists abroad.
The Pamplona Running of the Bills is held each year, where thousands of people run in front of six bulls for half a mile through the city, on the way to the bullring (the bulls are then killed). Just like Siena’s Running of the Horses in Italy (made to look glamorous in a James Bond film), there are huge welfare concerns.
League Against Cruel Sports is our main campaigner against this awful event. Today things have moved on, and nearly all people in the UK would never attend a bullfight (it’s a mystery why in the 70s British people ever did, as we are known as an animal-batty nation).
Bullfighting now only occurs in 9 countries (but that’s enough to harm tens of thousands of innocent bulls). It still continues in Spain, Portugal, France, Mexico (banned in a few states), Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and surprisingly, the USA (so-called ‘bloodless bullfighting) where modified spears are used to simulate ‘stabbing’ (it’s still tormenting and scaring an animal, in front of thousands of jeering spectators).
The organisation has been successful in stopping the promotion of bullfights by many companies, but says that a few still do. Lack of patronage and local protests (often by Spaniards) has led to bullfighting being banned in over 100 Spanish towns, Catalonia and in the Canary Islands.
You can join their campaign to email companies still promoting bullfights, and contact them if you see any travel brochures, websites or in-flight magazines promoting bullfights.
TV show Strictly Come Dancing often has couples performing the Paso Doble, which imitates a matador and bull. Obviously this is not comparable with a real bullfight. But Julian Clary did not wish to perform it, when he appeared as a contestant, in case it glamorised the event.
Pope Pius V (banned bullfights for Catholics)
Pope Saint Pius by Bartolomeo Passarotti
Goodness knows why (Saint Francis of Assisi?) but the Roman Catholic church has a strong history of supporting bullfights, and it’s evident that the main countries where it is still practiced are ones with a strong Catholic faith (Spain, Portugal, France and in South America).
Recently, Pope Leo XIV was asked to condemn bullfights and ask Catholic countries to stop, but so far has refused.
Catholic Concern for Animals writes interestingly that back in 1567, Pope Saint Pius banned bullfighting (and all types of animal baiting) saying ‘these bloody exhibitions of devils rather than men’ should be abolished (and even deprived people who participated in bullfights of a Christian burial).
Several years ago, Catholic monks in Sussex were farming veal (calves fed iron-poor diets in tiny cages, before being exported as ‘white meat’). A couple of dairy farmers took them to court on welfare grounds.
They lost, but the farm closed due to protests. And the resulting change to the law (banning veal crates) was the first major victory for their new charity: Compassion in World Farming.
