Bull Fights are NOT Vegan

Yesturday I went to a bull fight with Greta.  All our guy friends chickened out so it was just us.  It took us about 40 minutes to walk over to the Plaza de Toros and our tickets were 5 euros each. It was definitely worth it for the experience.

I don't know how much you guys know about bull fights but they aren't exactly the most animal friendly event and the are definitely not for the sqwimish. I won't go into all the details but I will say it is quite bloody.  I spent a lot of time in my high school Spanish studying bull fights so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.        I can't really say the same for the girls around us.  I've actually talked to people who didn't know that the bull is killed at the end. You can imagine how shocking it would be to think that you're just going to watch some men in funny suits wave a cape in front of a bull and then...well like I said, the bull is killed. I was the calm and collected person who was like "It's going to get gruesome now, you might want to close your eyes."  In my opinion, what made this bull fight particular harsh, is that the matadors were not professionals yet and they were really inexperienced.  If you are watching a really good matador the bull dies so fast that it barely has to suffer.  The matador we saw had to stab the bull 3 different times and that just causes even more unnecessary suffering for the bull.

While a bull fight isn't exactly something you say you enjoyed,  I did actually kind of like it.  It's a really interesting tradition to me.  For followers of bull fights, it's considered a fine art and not a sport.  I don't necessarily agree that it's an art, but I think I know enough about the history of bull fights that I can at least appreciate them for what they are.  Bull fights go back to a time of bull worship and sacrifice.  It is suppose to be considered a great honor for the bull to die in the bull fight.  I would definitely spend money to go see another one.  I would really like to participate in the traditional audience roles.  Traditional audience members have a panuelo blanco or a white handkerchief and at the end of the fight, if they liked the matador they wave their handkerchief.  The amount of handkerchiefs being wave determines the price the matador recieves. They either get nothing, one ear, both ears, or both ears and the tail.

Here's a little video you to watch if you want a taste of what a bullfight's like.  This matador is Cayetano Ordonez.  He is one of the most famous matadors currently.  He's also an Armani model.