Death in the Afternoon

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Fighting bulls are 'prepared' in advance. These preparations include keeping them in darkened stalls for up to two days before hand in order that they will charge immediately towards the light, smearing their eyes with petroleum jelly to prevent them focusing on their tormentors and pricking their bollocks to get them feisty.

Part One of the 3-part 'show' is a bit of dancing with the cape to get the bull interested, followed by two mounted picadores using lances to destroy the bull's morillo (Lifting muscles in the neck). This is intended to force the bull to lower his head into a more aesthetically pleasing posture - but take a look at the pictures and you will note that there is a lot of blood, which can't but weaken the animal.

Part Two involves the Matador stabbing the animal with six banderillas - these are spears that have a barbed head intended to hold them in place. The intent is merely to give the matador the chance to display his artistic integrity.

Having abused the poor fecking thing for the 10 minutes or so it takes to get all of this metal into him and to cause critical injury the Third and final act is the long bit and involves the matador tormenting the bull with the cape and an aluminium sword that allows the odd jab and poke to be inflicted should the injured bull show signs of early exhaustion. Only when the twat in the gold suit feels that the droogs in the stands have seen enough does he wander off and fetch a sword capable of delivering the killer blow - but he usually fecks that up and ends up having to cut the animal's spinal cord to bring the spectacle to an end.

Now we all know that severing the spinal chord will turn the animal into a quadraplegic - but it won't kill it, so the ritual of cutting off its ears and tail is more often than not carried out while the animal is still alive, as is its being dragged from the arena behind mules.

I'm no expert either, but I got all of that off the Bull Fighters' Aficionados International - a website for its apologists.

[rowan]

Well, I'm neither a fan nor an apologist, just drawing the comparison between the fans of bullfighting and fans of boxing. I do know that boxers go after certain points in the anatomy, including vital organs, and try to inflict as much damage there as possible. We all know what the long term effects of this are, let alone the dramatic short term effects in some unfortunate cases. Either way, the fans are there for the same thing - the skill and violence designed to bring about physical suffering and the ultimate demise of the victim. So I'm no longer a fan, and certainly not an apologist, for boxing either.