Catalonia bans bullfighting

I know this is not a hot new item but it is still very pleasing to see that bullfighting is to be banned in Catalonia.

According the Guardian deputies voted by 68 to 55 in favour of a people's petition calling on the bullfight to be banished from a region that once played host to some of the world's greatest fights. The ban will start in 2012.

About 13,500 fighting bulls die in Spain every year – many in bullfights funded by local authorities who are estimated to pay out up to €550m (£457m) in subsidies.

In Spain, critics have accused Catalan nationalist deputies of voting out of spite, because the fighting bull is an emblem of Spain – where it is known as the "national fiesta" – rather than of Catalonia. The local El Periódico newspaper reported that several nationalist deputies had decided to back the ban only after Spain's constitutional court struck down parts of the region's 2006 autonomy charter earlier this month. At least 430,000 people, or 6% of all Catalans, protested on 10 July in Barcelona against the court's decision ,which declared Catalonia was not legally a nation.

Animal rights campaigners were upset that identity politics had been brought to play. "The issue is a moral one, not a nationalist one," said Dr Salvador Giner, head of the Catalan Studies Institute in Barcelona. "Bear-baiting was suppressed long ago and this is the same logic. Are we a modern nation, or are we going back to the middle ages?"

Dr Giner said the bullfight had a long history in Catalonia. "But it is a barbarous tradition." He also denounced those who voted against bullfighting but protected the correbous, a form of bull-taunting popular in village fiestas in southern Catalonia. "That should be banned as well, even if politicians lose votes. That would be consistent."

The bullfight has been in decline in Catalonia for decades. There is only one major ring functioning in Barcelona, with just 15 fights a year. The city's other emblematic bullring, Las Arenas, is being turned into a shopping arcade, following a redesign by Lord Rogers.

"There was never a strong tradition of bullfighting there anyway, they do not breed bulls," said Frank Evans, the Salford-born veteran British bullfighter. "It is like Devon staging Rugby League games."

Bullfight campaigners said the ban would cost €300m in lost revenues, and argue that the fight was an art form, rather than a cruel bloodsport.

A petition calling for the ban to be extended to the capital of Madrid, home to the world's most famous bull-ring, Las Ventas, has 50,000 signatures. But there is little prospect of success.

The regional government, like that of Valencia, has declared the bull-fight to be a part of its "protected cultural patrimony".

Personally I welcome this move. As far as I am concerned what consenting adults get up to is usually not the concern of anybody else. The caveat is always that it does not involve children or animals. Bullfighting is cruelty dressed up with ritual, nothing else.

I will leave the last word to poet Pree Gimferrer who decribed the ban thus:"It is the worst attack on culture since our transition to democracy,"

I hope he didn’t mean that democracy destroyed Spanish culture!

Matador sees the light

According to theTelegraph a terrified Christian Hernandez dropped his red cape and ran from the charging bull during an event at the Plaza Mexico in Mexico City on Sunday.

He was arrested after the bullfight following complaints by organisers that he had breached his contract. He was later released after paying a fine.

The torero, who was badly gored in the leg during a bullfight several months ago, admitted that he had lost his nerve and would now retire from bullfighting altogether.

"There are some things you must be aware of about yourself," he said. "I didn't have the ability, I didn't have the balls, this is not my thing."

Good boy. I hope you find a better life than one that involved killing bulls

Oh dear what a shame, never mind

Spain’s most charismatic and popular bullfighter, José Tomás, was put into intensive care in Mexico after being badly gored by a fighting bull in the town of Aguascalientes.

A half-tonne bull caught Tomas in his upper thigh and dug his horn deep by raising its head before flicking him up into the air. The horn had penetrated 15cm (6in) into the bullfighter's thigh, damaging veins and arteries and causing a huge loss of blood.

The newspaper El País said Tomás's injury was so serious that the bullring doctors who first operated on him did not have time to anaesthetise him.

No tears to be shed for Tomas. He went into the ring to torture and kill a bull. The bull managed to put paid to that idea. Serves the macho arsehole right

Just over a year a go I did a post about a little brat who at the age of 11 became the youngest matador to kill six young bulls in a single fight. At the time I warned Mexican Michelito Lagravere Peniche to go off and play with a Nintendo, lest he be gored (something I would not shed a tear over)

Now it seems that he had his first taste of what a bull can do to a matador. Michelito was carried sobbing from the bullring in Cali, Colombia on Sunday after being tossed in the air by a bull nearly 10 times his weight.

His father, a retired matador himself, encouraged him to go back into the ring to finish the fight but within minutes the he was again knocked to the ground by the bull’s horns. Luckily for him his injuries were not anywhere near life threatening.

Sadly little Michelito seems to want to carry on his barbaric “sport”. Perhaps next time we hear of him will be when he is gored to death. He has had his chance to go and whack off and play video games like any other 12 year old

Go and play with a Nintendo you little brat

Today’s BBC carries a report about vile little brat who has earned a dubious record. Aged 11 Mexican Michelito Lagravere Peniche became the youngest matador to kill six young bulls in a single fight

The controversial spectacle was given a last minute go-ahead by the authorities despite pressure from child protection and anti-bullfighting campaign groups. Merida's mayor had suspended the record attempt, saying it was illegal for youths under the age of 18 to take part in high-risk public performances. But the state prosecutor's office overturned the ban just hours before the fight after Michelito's father - a former French bullfighter - launched an appeal.

Some 3,500 people, including many children, reportedly gathered to witness the fight at the ring in the eastern city of Merida in Yucatan state. The child matador is already an international star in the world of bullfighting. He first entered the ring when he was four, killed his first bull calf two years later and has since taken on dozens of animals around the world.

"The bullfighting opponents shouldn't stick their nose in things they don't like," he said ahead of his record attempt. No-one is forcing them to watch bullfights or to keep informed about them. It's as if I told a boy who does motocross not to do it, it's very bothersome."

Last year, the child prodigy (PRODIGY?) caused a public outcry in France while he was touring the bullfighting circuit there. Several cities banned him from killing animals during his appearances after anti-bullfighting activists waged a high profile campaign. They said they had targeted him over other younger matadors because "he fights in corridas [bullfights] aiming to kill".

To be honest I will not shed a single tear if this little brat gets gored by one of the bulls – after all it is an occupational hazard of the so-called sport. As far as I am concerned bullfighting is a barbaric spectacle that should have been consigned the dustbin of history a long time ago. Michelito should go off and do something far more productive with his time like whacking off and playing video games.