Sunday August 22, 06:43 AM
MADRID (Reuters) - About 100 almost naked anti-bullfighting campaigners lay down outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao on Saturday in a protest coinciding with the start of the northern Spanish city's annual bullfight festival.
The demonstration followed the Catalan parliament's decision last month to ban bullfighting in that region from 2012, outlawing the centuries-old spectacle for the first time in mainland Spain.
The activists from the animal welfare groups AnimaNaturalis, Equanimal and CAS International lay down in the shape of a bull, their bodies smeared with black or red paint to simulate blood.
"Catalonia has been the first Spanish region to ban bullfighting and will be an example for others," said Aida Gascon, director of AnimaNaturalis in Spain.
The Catalan move was seen as partly driven by separatist sentiment in a region which is keen to differentiate itself from Spain.
Bilbao is the main city in Spain's Basque Country, which also has a fervent separatist movement but a strong bullfighting tradition. Over the nine-day Bilbao festival, Spain's top matadors will kill 54 bulls.
The bulllight debate was enlivened this week at a festival in the small Navarran town of Tafalla, when a bull vaulted over the ring's barrier into the crowd and hurt about 40 spectators before it was brought under control.
(Reporting by Judy MacInnes and Jesus Buitrago; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/100821/5/l2wo.html
Showing posts with label blood sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blood sports. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Boy Matador, 12, Bullish After Narrow Escape
4:10pm UK, Monday June 07, 2010
Tim Hewage, Sky News Online
A 12-year-old boy has become the youngest ever novice bullfighter to perform in Mexico City's main ring.
Known to his fans as Michelito, Michel Lagravere successfully killed an 893lb bull that dwarfed the young matador.
But his second bull was not such a success and the 12-year-old was knocked to the ground.
After being taken to hospital for X-rays, the boy's father - also a bullfighter - said Michelito had only suffered minor bruising.
Despite the close call, the budding bullfighter said the experience had left "a good taste in my mouth".
Though his first appearance in the Mexico City stadium, Michelito is no stranger to the ring - he had his first bullfight when he was just four years old.
Child matadors are just another controversial aspect of this sport and can be seen in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
In Spain matadors have to be at least 16 years old and can attain popstar-like status.
But there the sport is under fire. It is already banned on the Canary Islands and a ruling to ban the practice in the Catalonia region will be decided next month.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Michel-Lagravere-Becomes-Youngest-Ever-Novice-Bullfighter-To-Perform-In-Mexico-Citys-Main-Ring/Article/201006115645138?f=rss
Tim Hewage, Sky News Online
A 12-year-old boy has become the youngest ever novice bullfighter to perform in Mexico City's main ring.
Known to his fans as Michelito, Michel Lagravere successfully killed an 893lb bull that dwarfed the young matador.
But his second bull was not such a success and the 12-year-old was knocked to the ground.
After being taken to hospital for X-rays, the boy's father - also a bullfighter - said Michelito had only suffered minor bruising.
Despite the close call, the budding bullfighter said the experience had left "a good taste in my mouth".
Though his first appearance in the Mexico City stadium, Michelito is no stranger to the ring - he had his first bullfight when he was just four years old.
Child matadors are just another controversial aspect of this sport and can be seen in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
In Spain matadors have to be at least 16 years old and can attain popstar-like status.
But there the sport is under fire. It is already banned on the Canary Islands and a ruling to ban the practice in the Catalonia region will be decided next month.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Michel-Lagravere-Becomes-Youngest-Ever-Novice-Bullfighter-To-Perform-In-Mexico-Citys-Main-Ring/Article/201006115645138?f=rss
Monday, April 26, 2010
Gored Bullfighter Battles For His Life
12:18pm UK, Monday April 26, 2010
David Williams, Sky News Online
One of Spain's top matadors is fighting for his life after being gored in the groin during a bullfight in Mexico.
Jose Tomas received a 17-pint blood transfusion after the half-tonne bull plunged one of its horns 10cm into the fighter's left thigh, puncturing a vein and an artery.
Tomas had bled so profusely that bullring officials even appealed to the crowd to come forward for transfusions if they matched his relatively rare A- blood type.
Doctors later spent three hours trying to repair a femoral artery perforated in the fight in the city of Aguascalientes.
The director of the Miguel Hidalgo hospital, Geronimo Aguayo, said Tomas had shown "slight improvement" but remains in a grave condition.
Mexican television footage showed the acclaimed fighter being caught out by a quick turn from the animal during the bout, which was being held amid celebrations for an important national festival.
The beast attacked and lifted Tomas into the air, shaking its head with the matador dangling from its sharp left horn.
Once on the ground, Tomas rolled away and held his hands up as if to say he was OK, but a large, dark red stain was already seeping through his glittering gold suit.
The 34-year-old has suffered a number of serious gorings since returning to the ring in 2007 following his surprise retirement five years previously.
His comeback was met with a tremendous fanfare in Spain, whereupon Tomas told one interviewer "living without bullfighting is not living".
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Matador-Gored-In-Mexican-Bullfight-Jose-Tomas-Fighting-For-Life-In-Aguascalientes-After-Bout/Article/201004415620024
David Williams, Sky News Online
One of Spain's top matadors is fighting for his life after being gored in the groin during a bullfight in Mexico.
Jose Tomas received a 17-pint blood transfusion after the half-tonne bull plunged one of its horns 10cm into the fighter's left thigh, puncturing a vein and an artery.
Tomas had bled so profusely that bullring officials even appealed to the crowd to come forward for transfusions if they matched his relatively rare A- blood type.
Doctors later spent three hours trying to repair a femoral artery perforated in the fight in the city of Aguascalientes.
The director of the Miguel Hidalgo hospital, Geronimo Aguayo, said Tomas had shown "slight improvement" but remains in a grave condition.
Mexican television footage showed the acclaimed fighter being caught out by a quick turn from the animal during the bout, which was being held amid celebrations for an important national festival.
The beast attacked and lifted Tomas into the air, shaking its head with the matador dangling from its sharp left horn.
Once on the ground, Tomas rolled away and held his hands up as if to say he was OK, but a large, dark red stain was already seeping through his glittering gold suit.
The 34-year-old has suffered a number of serious gorings since returning to the ring in 2007 following his surprise retirement five years previously.
His comeback was met with a tremendous fanfare in Spain, whereupon Tomas told one interviewer "living without bullfighting is not living".
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Matador-Gored-In-Mexican-Bullfight-Jose-Tomas-Fighting-For-Life-In-Aguascalientes-After-Bout/Article/201004415620024
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Catalan Parliament passes landmark vote to ban bullfighting
December 19, 2009
Catalonia voted yesterday to ban bullfighting, a move that campaigners claim could mark the beginning of the end of Spain’s most controversial sport.
Protestors dressed as slaughtered bulls stood outside the Catalan Parliament before 67 deputies voted for the ban, with 59 against. Five abstained.
The motion must pass a final vote next year before a ban comes into force.
Though the ban will put an end to bullfights, it will not prohibit street fiestas in which bulls are tormented, sometimes with balls of fire attached to their horns.
The motion called for a change in Catalonia’s animal cruelty law that would see fighting bulls, which are currently excluded, protected from any kind of torture.
The campaign to ban las corridas (bullfights) in this wealthy northeast region of Spain has stirred up a heated debate and attracted celebrity support from the likes of Ricky Gervais and Pamela Anderson.
Gervais, who has been a supporter of animal rights for years, told The Times: “Shame on anyone who finds an animal being tortured entertaining.
“And shame on anyone who thinks that stepping into a ring armed with swords with a frightened and confused animal who has often already had the tendons in its neck severed so it cannot lift its head is brave.”
Anderson, also a veteran animal rights activist, said: “The most appalling kind of cruelty is that which is perpetuated in the name of mere entertainment.”
The campaigners, calling themselves Prou! (Catalan for “Enough!”) collected 168,000 signatures for a motion to convince the Catalan deputies to hold the vote.
Leonardo Anselmi, Prou spokesman, said that if bullfighting is banned in Catalonia, other regions of Spain will follow.
“We think this will be the beginning of the end for this cruel spectacle,” he said.
But the celebrity animal rights’ activists have faced an equally determined campaign by Spanish writers, artists, directors and architects who want los toros (the bulls) to remain.
Mario Vargas Llosa, the award-winning Peruvian writer, Eduardo Medoza, a Spanish writer, Miquel Barcelo, the artist, and Calixto Bieito, the theatre director, are among the high-profile figures who defended bullfighting.
“It is not only a cultural reality, a festival, a tradition, a part of the economy which is to play for but also the liberty of all,” said Luis Corrales, the campaign spokesman.
Spain’s best-known matadors puffed out their chests in a group photograph this week in defence of what they call their “art’”.
José Tomás — the David Beckham of bullfighting — who commands fees of €400,000 (£340,835) for an afternoon’s work, has become the figurehead of their campaign.
Salvador Boix, Tomas’ manager, told The Times: “This attempt to ban bullfighting shows the hypocrisy of the politicians who all enjoy eating meat but vote to end bullfighting.” Some observers believe that the motion to ban bullfighting has little to do with concern for animal welfare and more to do with opposition from Catalan nationalists to a Spanish cultural phenomenon which is seen as alien by separatists. Nationalist parties voted for the ban.
Catalonia is not the first region to ban bullfighting. In 1991 the Canary Islands included bullfighting in a law that prohibited the suffering of animals for public enjoyment.
The Catalan vote, however, is the first to specifically ban what Spaniards call ‘”the national fiesta”.
The initiative, which will pay compensation to bull breeders and bull ring owners from public money, comes as the number of bullfights and fiestas involving bulls has fallen in recent years. According to government figures there were 891 this year, 354 fewer than in 2008.
As Spain experiences its worst recession in decades, many councils, who have to pay for bulls to be used in public festivals, have cut back.
In Spain, the exploits of the country’s matadors – who rank alongside footballers and pop stars in standing – are reported in the culture sections of newspapers.
Bullfighting aficionados, however, have complained that the media increasingly gives their art a negative image.
In 2007 bullfighting was dropped by the state broadcaster RTVE from children’s television.
Victoria Martin Garcia, a bull breeder, said: “How can it be that the second most popular sport is not on television nor appears much in the media?” Attitudes among younger Spaniards, however, may prove the biggest enemy of bullfighting. A Gallup survey in 2006 found that 81 per cent of those under 35 had no interest in bullfighting.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6961985.ece
Catalonia voted yesterday to ban bullfighting, a move that campaigners claim could mark the beginning of the end of Spain’s most controversial sport.
Protestors dressed as slaughtered bulls stood outside the Catalan Parliament before 67 deputies voted for the ban, with 59 against. Five abstained.
The motion must pass a final vote next year before a ban comes into force.
Though the ban will put an end to bullfights, it will not prohibit street fiestas in which bulls are tormented, sometimes with balls of fire attached to their horns.
The motion called for a change in Catalonia’s animal cruelty law that would see fighting bulls, which are currently excluded, protected from any kind of torture.
The campaign to ban las corridas (bullfights) in this wealthy northeast region of Spain has stirred up a heated debate and attracted celebrity support from the likes of Ricky Gervais and Pamela Anderson.
Gervais, who has been a supporter of animal rights for years, told The Times: “Shame on anyone who finds an animal being tortured entertaining.
“And shame on anyone who thinks that stepping into a ring armed with swords with a frightened and confused animal who has often already had the tendons in its neck severed so it cannot lift its head is brave.”
Anderson, also a veteran animal rights activist, said: “The most appalling kind of cruelty is that which is perpetuated in the name of mere entertainment.”
The campaigners, calling themselves Prou! (Catalan for “Enough!”) collected 168,000 signatures for a motion to convince the Catalan deputies to hold the vote.
Leonardo Anselmi, Prou spokesman, said that if bullfighting is banned in Catalonia, other regions of Spain will follow.
“We think this will be the beginning of the end for this cruel spectacle,” he said.
But the celebrity animal rights’ activists have faced an equally determined campaign by Spanish writers, artists, directors and architects who want los toros (the bulls) to remain.
Mario Vargas Llosa, the award-winning Peruvian writer, Eduardo Medoza, a Spanish writer, Miquel Barcelo, the artist, and Calixto Bieito, the theatre director, are among the high-profile figures who defended bullfighting.
“It is not only a cultural reality, a festival, a tradition, a part of the economy which is to play for but also the liberty of all,” said Luis Corrales, the campaign spokesman.
Spain’s best-known matadors puffed out their chests in a group photograph this week in defence of what they call their “art’”.
José Tomás — the David Beckham of bullfighting — who commands fees of €400,000 (£340,835) for an afternoon’s work, has become the figurehead of their campaign.
Salvador Boix, Tomas’ manager, told The Times: “This attempt to ban bullfighting shows the hypocrisy of the politicians who all enjoy eating meat but vote to end bullfighting.” Some observers believe that the motion to ban bullfighting has little to do with concern for animal welfare and more to do with opposition from Catalan nationalists to a Spanish cultural phenomenon which is seen as alien by separatists. Nationalist parties voted for the ban.
Catalonia is not the first region to ban bullfighting. In 1991 the Canary Islands included bullfighting in a law that prohibited the suffering of animals for public enjoyment.
The Catalan vote, however, is the first to specifically ban what Spaniards call ‘”the national fiesta”.
The initiative, which will pay compensation to bull breeders and bull ring owners from public money, comes as the number of bullfights and fiestas involving bulls has fallen in recent years. According to government figures there were 891 this year, 354 fewer than in 2008.
As Spain experiences its worst recession in decades, many councils, who have to pay for bulls to be used in public festivals, have cut back.
In Spain, the exploits of the country’s matadors – who rank alongside footballers and pop stars in standing – are reported in the culture sections of newspapers.
Bullfighting aficionados, however, have complained that the media increasingly gives their art a negative image.
In 2007 bullfighting was dropped by the state broadcaster RTVE from children’s television.
Victoria Martin Garcia, a bull breeder, said: “How can it be that the second most popular sport is not on television nor appears much in the media?” Attitudes among younger Spaniards, however, may prove the biggest enemy of bullfighting. A Gallup survey in 2006 found that 81 per cent of those under 35 had no interest in bullfighting.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6961985.ece
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Spanish town cancels bullfighting
The residents of a small town in central Spain have voted in a referendum to cancel their annual bullfighting festival because of the economic crisis, the BBC's Steve Kingstone reports.
The move was proposed by the mayor of Manzanares el Real - on the grounds that the event would divert resources from other municipal services. But the result has caused an outcry among supporters of bullfighting.
Fifty-two percent of those who voted agreed the bullfighting festival should be scrapped. Thirty-five percent voted to keep the event.
And only 13% chose a compromise option - to maintain the festival, but scale down its cost.
On paper, that result means that Manzanares el Real will lose its bullfight - traditionally, part of the social and cultural fabric of small-town Spain.
The mayor had argued that the cost of the event, at more than 125,000 euros ($165,000; £116,000), was too high for a community struggling through a recession.
But supporters of local bullfighting are furious, and some protested in the town when the result became known.
They point that turnout was just 22% - too low, they say, to justify doing away with a cherished tradition.
The outcome puts the mayor of Manzanares in a difficult position.
After assessing the result and the passions on all sides, he will take what may be a career-shaping final decision during the coming week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7969868.stm
The move was proposed by the mayor of Manzanares el Real - on the grounds that the event would divert resources from other municipal services. But the result has caused an outcry among supporters of bullfighting.
Fifty-two percent of those who voted agreed the bullfighting festival should be scrapped. Thirty-five percent voted to keep the event.
And only 13% chose a compromise option - to maintain the festival, but scale down its cost.
On paper, that result means that Manzanares el Real will lose its bullfight - traditionally, part of the social and cultural fabric of small-town Spain.
The mayor had argued that the cost of the event, at more than 125,000 euros ($165,000; £116,000), was too high for a community struggling through a recession.
But supporters of local bullfighting are furious, and some protested in the town when the result became known.
They point that turnout was just 22% - too low, they say, to justify doing away with a cherished tradition.
The outcome puts the mayor of Manzanares in a difficult position.
After assessing the result and the passions on all sides, he will take what may be a career-shaping final decision during the coming week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7969868.stm
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