It’s always good to start the day on a positive note (especially when it’s a cold, grey Monday!), and today is no exception. Bulls in the Portuguese city of Viana do Castelo will be breathing a huge sigh of relief, as the municipality’s President has announced that a local bullring will be turned into a science and education centre. How cool is that? Turning a place of fear, blood and death into something positive that the whole community can share. Every year in bullfights there, eight bulls were taunted and killed, so over the years that’s a lot of bulls saved thanks to this President!
According to a major Portuguese newspaper, he has said: “We are in the 21st century and the sacrifice of animals – if it can at all be justified in places where there is a local important bullfighting tradition – can find no justification in Viana do Castelo. We have no bullfighters, forcados, bulls or horses.” He added: “To maintain a place to sacrifice eight animals per year has no justification.” Awww, what a great guy!
Kudos to Portuguese group ANIMAL for their anti-bullfighting work in the country and for sending around this great story. Of course, a lot of work still needs to be done on bullfighting around Europe however. Keep an eye on Peta.org.uk for updates, and most importantly of all don’t ever visit a bullfight, and encourage your travelling buddies to do the same.
Did you know that YOU are inadvertently paying for the cruel spectacle that is bullfighting? Don’t worry, it’s not your fault and we’re not going to start picketing your house. This is being done on your behalf by our trusty European Union. Yeah, thanks guys.
Danny Penman at the Daily Mail reported yesterday that £30million of taxpayers’ money is being used to support the shady Spanish bullfighting industry; an industry that kills 40,000 bulls every single year. Now of course the EU (and British government) know that handing over a giant cheque to a whirlwind of flashing cameras isn’t gonna go down well with the public. So it’s all hidden amongst bureaucracy, like the Common Agricultural Policy’s ’single farm payment’ scheme, where fighting bull breeders are given £185 per bull until they reach fighting age. But this is only the tip of the iceberg and you can read the whole shebang here.
We’re encouraging people to write to EU Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel. Go get ‘em, tiger!
If there’s one way to show the world that bullfighting is cruel, we think it might be to strip off, cover yourself in fake blood, stick a ‘banderillo’ in your back and lay across the streets of Pamplona. That’s why on Saturday over 60 activists from all over the world – seriously, Austria, Germany, Portugal, France, even Florida! – got (mostly) naked and protested against the San Fermin festival, which is currently underway.
It all kicked off this morning with the Running of the Bulls, where bulls are chased through the slippery and winding streets, being hit by runners as they race past. While human injuries are often reported (nine people this year already), it’s the bulls who face a deadly fate, leading onto the bloody bullfights and a gory slaughter.
Check out RunningOfTheNudes.com to see photos of past naked events to end bullfighting and Running of the Bulls.
We all know the Running of the Bulls sucks. I mean, it really sucks. How can it be fun to chase bulls through the streets, hitting, taunting and then finally killing them in a bloodbath in front of thousands of spectators? So think what a pleasant surprise it was for the 30,000 strong crowd last weekend, when instead of bulls racing through the streets and being stabbed to death in the bull-fighting arena, two Formula-1 cars took their place. The drivers, David Coulthard and Sebastien Bourdais, tore through the city early on the morning of June 28, finishing the “Red Bull Run” with car demonstrations in both the bull-fighting arena and a track.
Now that’s what I call playing nicely. Check out more photos and videos of the event here.
I’m not very happy, no, not one bit! Sunday saw the start of the San Juan ‘Blood Fiesta’ in Coria, Spain – a horrible 3 day event which involves a bull and a mass of bloodthirsty onlookers with darts, can you tell where this is going?
The bull walks and runs for hours in the streets while people throw darts at him. The men are aiming for the more sensitive parts of its body like the nose, eyes and testicles. When he is too tired and weak from loss of blood to continue the escape, the villagers cut off his testicles while he is still alive.
As a man, I can tell you that I would have to be severely debilitated physically to allow someone to do that to me without a fight – bulls are three to four times my size so you can only imagine just how much torture they have to endure to stop them from making human pie out of anyone that comes close. I’m usually in a pretty critical and sarcastic mood but this has left me reeling with disgust and slightly speechless.
Here’s a report from Rob, our bullfighting campaigner, who has just come back from a trip to Brussels. Over to you Rob…
“29 different groups from 12 Countries and two continents (Europe & South America) came together in Brussels for the largest anti bullfighting summit to take place to date. At the organisational heart of this new initiative of cooperation within the anti bullfighting community has been PETA Europe.
The anti-bullfighting summit took place over two days starting Wednesday 4th June and finishing Thursday 5th June. This wasn’t just any old summit but one that combined both speaking to each other as well as action. Part of the summit took place in the usual way with discussions on future tactics, working as a unified force, cooperation and coordination with groups not just in Europe but also Latin America, with groups attending from Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela. As well as groups from all the European bullfighting countries and Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.
This summit wasn’t purely about discussing future tactics however, it was about action and we came together with a specific mission. Three months ago we received word that the bullfighters were planning a big exhibition in the EU Parliament in order to spin their lies to MEPs in the hope of convincing them to support any future plans, namely increasing or keeping the status quo where EU subsidies are concerned. It was estimated by Jordi Portabella, Council of Barcelona City Council that in the region of €29.12 million are given in subsidies to Spanish bull breeders every year. If the EU puts a halt to these subsidies the impact could be catastrophic to the bullfighting industry.
Before the summit and the bullfighter’s exhibition having taken place, a glossy information pack was produced in order to refute point by point the lies of the bullfighters. PETA was at the very centre of producing this information pack closely working with WSPA and the League against Cruel Sports and it was given to every MEP at the beginning of the week in order to pre-empt the lies of the bullfighters in their exhibition. Interestingly our tactics seem to have been successful, as I have just heard that the Belgium MEP Gérard Duprez has withdrawn his participation in the bullfighting exhibition at Brussels. In a letter seen by PETA the MEP says that he was convinced that the exhibition was not designed to promote bullfights. That was the information he received. When he realised that it was in fact to promote bullfights he decided to withdraw. He considers that he was manipulated and he does not want to see his name associated with such an exhibition.
The anti-bullfighting alliance had a stall in the EU Parliament where MEPs were asked to sign a life-sized model bull.”
She may not be a household name here in the UK, but boy, is Alaska loved in Spain?! That’s why we’re soooo grateful the gorgeous and courageous singer of electro-pop band Fangoria decided to pose in an anti-bullfighting advert for PETA. The stunning ad was unveiled yesterday amidst the Festival of San Isidro in Madrid – one of Spain’s biggest and bloodiest bullfighting events which takes place over four weeks. Unless you’re fluent in Spanish, you probably won’t be able to read the feature on EncierroHumano.com or the coverage from the unveiling, but so you don’t miss out, here’s what Alaska says about bullfighting:
“My mother’s first husband was a bullfighter. So it was very normal when I was a little girl for my parents to take me to corridas. Sometimes you do grow up and you say ‘what’s going on? I don’t think this is right at all so I’ve got to do something’ and my way of doing things is being outspoken and opening my mind and speaking my mind to whoever wants to listen to me… We don’t deserve to harm anyone, not a boy, not a dog and not a bull.”
Too right, and with 82 percent of Spanish citizens between 15 and 24 years old not even remotely interested in bullfighting, it’s a disgrace it continues to make a buck.
Activists from anti-bullfighting and animal rights group Equanimal stormed a Spanish bullring over the weekend during the festival of San Isidro. Check out the video below of six protestors braving the matador’s wrath as they cling to their banners in the centre of Las Ventas, Madrid. Want to stick it to the bullfighting industry yourself? We’ve got a huge protest happening in early July in Pamplona, contact me for more details. It’s time this blood ‘sport’ was banished to the history books for good.
Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo is in the red with PETA after we were inundated with complaints about his new ad for Fuji Xerox. He plays a football kicking bullfighter taunting a bull in a ring. The video may not be in English but the message is loud and clear, and it is by no means animal friendly. So, we fired off a letter to the footy fella to let him know that bullfighting is not cool, and that every year around 250,000 bulls die in bullfights worldwide. We’re hoping he’s just simply not aware of the cruelty involved in this blood sport, but I’ll keep you posted on any response we get. Maybe he should watch the latest nude news conference video in our new anti-bullfighting campaign.
A racy, nude video is now available for viewing on RunningOfTheNudes.com or by clicking the video below. A team of amazing activists travelled around the world to spread the word about PETA’s new initiative to end bullfighting - ‘The Naked Truth: Bullfighting is Cruel.’ The gorgeous ladies and gents delivered nude news conferences to masses of stunned (and probably very happy) onlookers and media in Paris, Sydney, Madrid, Amsterdam and more, with a cheeky little treat at the end. Be warned however, you must be 18 or over to view the video!
The information and views expressed here are those of the author alone, are subject to change and may not represent the views of PETA. They are provided here for educational purposes only and have been gathered from the author's personal research and experiences. They should not be construed as legal advice. Except where third party ownership or copyright is indicated or credited regarding materials contained in this blog, copying, reproducing or redistributing any of the documents, data, content or materials contained in this Weblog for personal, non-commercial use is enthusiastically encouraged.
It’s always good to start the day on a positive note (especially when it’s a cold, grey Monday!), and today is no exception. Bulls in the Portuguese city of Viana do Castelo will be breathing a huge sigh of relief, as the municipality’s President has announced that a local bullring will be turned into a science and education centre. How cool is that? Turning a place of fear, blood and death into something positive that the whole community can share. Every year in bullfights there, eight bulls were taunted and killed, so over the years that’s a lot of bulls saved thanks to this President!
