Bullfighting is torture, not culture
News
In Spain, animals are still tortured into submission for public spectacle.
Paraded before a jeering crowd, exhausted, stressed and scared, before being taunted, abused and eventually stabbed to death. This is the fate for an estimated 60,000 animals every year in festivals and arenas in Spain, including 11,000 bulls who are tortured to death in bullfighting rings.
They call it tradition. We call it animal cruelty.
The argument for cruelty to be excused due to ‘culture’ is commonly used in defence of bullfighting, but the same could be said of bear-baiting – another inhumane bloodsport which has already been successfully brought to an end in India, and which we are now working to eliminate in Pakistan as well.
Our vision is a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty has ended. If we want to create a kinder world, these practices must be scrutinized without a rose-tinted lens of nostalgia that romanticises the suffering of animals.
When cruelty is excused because it is ‘tradition’, we must speak up for the animals and on behalf of the people who want a culture that doesn’t include cruelty to animals.
This is why we are calling on the Spanish government to make a resolution that 2016 will be the year that ends, not just bullfighting, but also all of the other fiestas and festivals where animals are treated cruelly, or terrified, taunted and tortured for a public spectacle.
We are calling on the Spanish government to make a resolution that 2016 will be the year that ends, not just bullfighting, but also all of the other fiestas and festivals where animals are treated cruelly, or terrified, taunted and tortured.