I think bullfighting should not be banned because it is an important part of the Spanish culture and heritage. It has traditionally been around for hundreds of years and to forgo such a tradition is ridiculous in my opinion...
The trained matadores who represent their families (and in some instances the family-honour) participate to promote the hispanic ethos willingly. They know there is a high risk of injury occurring and possibly death when fighting an angry bull, but they wish to uphold their culture in this way.
Therefore, I do not think that bullfighting should be banned. I do however think that there should be more safety precautions incorporated into the "fight" between the bull and the matador for all participants, and an assessment of pre and post fight status' analysed for future reference.
6 comments:
Hi Harrison,
This is a very thoughtful answer with lots of interesting points. I really like it.
So what you're saying is that it is up to the Spanish people to decide whether or not to ban bull fighting and has nothing to do with us. It is an old tradition and part of their culture, so we shouldn't say anything. This is something I mostly agree with.
However, I must challenge you, and ask you to put yourself in the position of the bull. Whether or not it is tradition, the matador is highly trained, and tires out the bull with his dance. Once the animal is tired, the matador injures the bull with swords until it dies, slowly and painfully.
I know that you know bulls are the male version of cows, and that cows normally just eat grass in fields. It is not a trained fighter like the matador and has no weapons. In New Zealand we put down cows as quickly and painlessly as possible before we make them into our food.
So my question to you is this: Now that you know of the suffering of a living creature, does it change your mind about what the Spanish should do? (obviously still we can't force them to do anything, all we can do is express our views).
Let me know what you think. This is something I am interested in hearing about.
Kia kaha,
Mark
Here in NZ we kill alot of bobby calves so at least the Bull had had a life...even if it wasn't one that we may or may not empathise with as our cultures are historically worlds apart.
Kia ora Harrison,
Hmmm, that is an interesting point. To live a long life to suffer a slow and painful death versus a quick life with a quick death. I am not sure which I would choose. And I am not sure how many bobby calves are killed in Spain, but it is interesting you raised bobby calves in this argument, would you mind elaborating further?
I do agree with your line of thought that we are very different culturally. Are you suggesting that it is not our place to interfere with another's culture? If so, I agree with that also.
We've got to remember that a bobby calf is one that is not weaning at day 4 and has a low chance of survival anyway, and that if they were in nature with no human interference, all calves only have a 30% chance of surviving to adulthood.
You can find the facts about bobby calves here
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/74762096/qa-bobby-calves-new-zealand-vs-the-rest-of-the-world
Thanks for sticking to your points. It made me research into an area I didn't know much about. The facts about bobby calving are provided simply to share, not to disprove your entirely legitimate argument.
Keep up that curious thinking of yours! I'm keen to see where this goes!
Mark
I am glad that you are also doing some research as well as me, hey we are both learning something this school holidays.
Yeah me too! I didn't even know what a bobby calf was! The research has been really interesting!
I had no clue what a bobby calf was until they showed it on the news.
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