When you ask someone: what word pops up in your mind when you think about Spain? A lot of people will answer: bullfighting. It’s a centuries old tradition in Spain but the opinions about the fights are divided. Some people find it entertaining and some people think it’s awful. But what happens during a fight and should it be abolished? Find here information about nowadays bullfighting in Spain.
Different kinds of bullfighting in Spain
There exist a lot of different types of bullfighting. One is on the street and one in an arena. Not only the location could be different, the event itself as well. In one fight, the bull will be challenged by the people and in some fight the bull needs to be killed by the matador. On the 28th of July in 2010 bullfighting was declared illegal in Catalonia but in 2015 the ban was annulled because people thought it was part of the Spanish culture.
It all started in the Arena, where the gladiators challenged the bulls. The nobles where watching the fight as amusement. These days it aren’t the nobles who are watching the bullfights anymore, but the locals and tourists. Back then there weren’t that many rules attached to the fight. These days it’s different. The bullfights need to abide by a fixed protocol.
There are lots of different kind of fights. At the classical fight, what happens in an arena, the matador fights against bulls of 4-6 years old. This is called the: torridas de torros. At each fight six bulls are killed. At other fights in the arena like: Novilladas, the bull is 2-3 years old and at the fight Berraces, the bull is younger than two years old. In both fights the bull will be killed, only the age differs. Before the fight starts, the bull won’t get something to eat or drink and is put in a dark room which calms him down.
The fight will be led by a ‘’president’’ mostly a politician or a cop. He will indicate when the fight can start, and the bull can be set free into the arena. Some people say the reason the bull always runs unstructured is because he’s so confused and scared. Some people say the bull is defending his territory the second he will arrive in the arena. The ‘’president’’ will rate the fight and can choose the reward for the fight based on the manner how the matadors killed the bull.
There also exist bullfighting in Spain where people try to jump over the bulls. During these fights the bull doesn’t get injured or killed. However, there is a pretty good change that the people that risk the jump will get hurt.
For centuries, the bull has been admired for his strength, with the matadors showing their human superiority over the animal and death.
Commotion about bullfighting in Spain
There has been a lot of commotion about the fighting because people think the bulls are treated really horribly before and during the fight. Some Spaniards think it is part of the culture of Spain and are therefore advocates of the fight. In their opinion the bulls have a better life before a fight than before he enters the slaughter. The opponents (a large part of the Spaniards) find it animal abuse and are very much against it. Every year around 250,000 bulls are killed all over the world during bullfighting.
And what do you think about bullfighting? Is it culture or animal abuse?