A Bullfight

I managed to catch a bullfight when i was in Spain . It turned out to be quite an interesting experience . Upon arriving at the arena , you immediately get the zoo smell . Yep . animal poo smell . haha . You're then ushered to your seat and spendthrift me decided to get the seat right at the front row . yeah . bahh . but it wasn't all that expensive coz it was under the sun . The most expensive seat are the those at the shaded seats .

Anyway, the whole fanfare started with horses and the bullfighters coming out . Marching across the sand pit . The bull fight starts . In case you don't already know . They do kill the bull . A total of 3 bulls were killed that evening i was there . It was amazing that people would want to risk their lives and battle with the bull and i did see the bull manage the successfully attack on of the bullfighter but nobody was trampled upon and i suppose they would have on the necessary protection under their uniform . It does take a lot of skill to battle with the bull and the entire fight is not just handled by one person but several bullfighters , but there is only one star .

First , they confuse the bull and luring it with the signature red cape only to run behind wooden planks causing the bull to crash into the wooden wall . After sufficient confusion . Fighters that are mounted on the horses appear and with their long spears , stab the bull . Followed by more hooks inserted into the bull's spine to causing it bleed even more . The final act is performed by the champion as pictured above by plunging a sword into the head of the bull . It is a very very bloody affair .It is because of this entire cruelty to the bull that have caused many animal rights group to move to petition and attempt to stop this cruel spectator sport .

In fact prior to entering the arena , the animals rights were there . With their prepared posters and huge signs , handing out flyers to the people going for the bullfight . I did pick up one of the their flyers and well, they claim that they do weaken the bull significantly before letting them out to battle . They starve the bull to weaken the bull and the ultimate act of killing the bull is tantamount to murder .

But it is a case of culture or tourism ? First of all , as we all know bull fighting is part and parcel of spanish tradition but as years gone by , has it lost it's original meaning and continue to persist only as a form of tourist attraction . Another point to note , while it seems like we are spiltting hairs here , but i watched this particular bullfight in barcelona and not Madrid and Barcelona is technically not really Spanish. To the locals , they are Catalan and in Catalonia , bullfighting is not part of their tradition . In fact in 2004, they have tried to stop bullfighting but it was ruled against. The question is , given the cultural differences between the 2 cities , should bullfighting be stopped in Barcelona ?