The last tormentors

During the Middle Age, the spectacles in which animals were tortured were very frequent in the whole Europe: dogs' fights, roosters, rats and, of course, bullfights. In England the calls were very popular bull-baitings in those who were tortured to the bulls with the dogs' help especially trained. Also there was bear-baitings, although the bears were much more scarce and difficult to support. Naturally, there were other times. The public executions and the Edicts of Fé were constituting a very valued popular entertainment. The last public execution in Madrid took place in 1890.

From the XVIIIth century the ideas of the philosophers of the Enlightenment were drawing little by little into the society, and this type of acts begun being considered to be brutal and unacceptable. In England they were abolished in the XIXth century, so that the debate that is beginning taking place these days in Spain on the abolition of the bullfights is late of more than one century with regard to the rest of Europe. The only reason that makes us special to the Spanish is that we are the only ones that we allow the torture of an animal to be a public spectacle. Two hundred years ago it was doing the whole world.

It is clear that the "tradition" cannot be invoked like a sufficient argument in itself to defend the savagery that the bullfights suppose: Perhaps the feminine ablation is not traditional in many African countries? Or in "sati", this Hindu habit of burning the widow in the pyre of the husband? Of course, the gladiators' fights would have been considered to be a part of the Hispanic-Roman “tradition”. Although it it does not seem, the world has evolved enough in the moral sense, for which it has been necessary to break with diverse "traditions". The affirmation of which “the bulls are a culture” it plays with the important double of the word. On the one hand, any thing that should happen often in a society can be considered to be a part of his culture. On the other hand, the term has a positive connotation of “activities of top order that ennoblecen to those who practise them” like the art, the literature or the science. If it is accepted that “the bulls are a culture” we might apply the same argument to the violence male chauvinist, and: who is going to deny that the machismo has a long tradition in Spain?

Pro-bullfighting some of them argue that he has no sense to prohibit the bullfights if not prohíben also the slaughters of seals or the hunting in general. The argument comes to admit that yes, that the bullfights are a drove of donkeys but also there are other droves of donkeys. For the same ones, if they accuse someone of a crime it might defend itself saying that …: Hitler committed more crimes! And it is very possible that also should prohibit themselves other atrocities. But this is a completely different matter.

The possible extinction of the bull of fight is other of the arguments commonly personnel to defend the bullfighting platform, although it is not a valid argument either. The fight bull is a race of a domestic species (Bos taurus) and naturally, the circulation depends on the decisions that the human beings take on this matter. His extinction, if the bullfights were prohibited would not be inevitable (although the conservation would have a cost). The case would remain included in the general problems of preserving the biodiversity of animals and domestic plants that fall down in desuetude. A problem undoubtedly urgent and that it affects to species as emblematic as the donkey. Similarly, the pastures dedicated to the brave cattle would not have why to turn to the moment into urban developments or shopping centers. They should be protected due to the wealth of these ecosystems, but undoubtedly, other forms of use, respectful with the way are possible.

Some pro-bullfighting radicals have gone so far as to argue that the bulls do not suffer, although the violence and cruelty of the "holiday" is clear. Neurological reasons exist to think that yes they do it. To start, his system límbico is very similar to ours. To continue, the pain has a strong adaptive value in the top animals. Curiously, there does not appear any research work published on this topic in PubMed, the principal database of biomedical investigations. Search in PubMed (here)

In short, the bullfights do a spectacle of the torture of an animal capable of suffering and there are therefore a double "savagery", for the torture in themselves and for the fact of doing a public spectacle of it and (often) televised. On having raised it to the category of Good of Cultural Interest, our leaders have given one more step in the “apology of the torture”, stealing also a public debate that should happen promptly.

Two hundred years ago the whole world in Europe was doing these things. Now only we make them the Spanish. We are the last tormentors. A doubtful honor.

More info:

“Live through the animals!” J. Mosterín. 1998. Publishing house Debates. Madrid.

“Animal Liberation” P. Singer. 1975. Ed. Harper Collins. New York.

“Animals and why they matter” M. Midgley. 1983. University of Georgia Press. Athens, US.