#188 Bulls

[Little bull]

Today July 7th is a great day in Spain.
Today is San Fermín and Pamplona celebrates the feast of bulls most important and famous in my country.

It's painful for me to use in this context words such as "feast", "important" or "great". And I don't give a damn if you've read Hemingway.

If you really love animals, if you really care for Nature... plase, take some minutes to read what is really a bullfight.

Notice that I post a picture of a baby and not pictures of a bullfight. Torture doesn't require that we recreated in its images.

* 24 hours before entering the bullring, the bull had been kept in the dark. When he goes into the bullring, the light and the screams of the spectators terrify him. The bull tries to scape, not to attack.

* The horns have been cut to protect the "brave" bullfighter. Sand bags were hung from his neck for hours. His testicles and kidneys have been beaten.

* Banderillas (barbed dart stuck into the bull's neck) make the bleeding constant. The hook moves into the wound with each movement of the bull and the touch of red cape. This is precisely the function of banderillas.

* Some banderillas have a 8 cms harpoon. The results in the bull: fatal internal bleeding. They stick into the bull all the necessary banderillas to weaken him.

* The eyes of the bull have been spread with greasy to hinder his vision. His legs have been smeared with a substance that produces burning and prevents him from kept quiet.

* If the bull is still fierce, the picador sticks a lance into the back of a bull that destroys his muscles and injures blood vessels and nerves.

* The horses of the picadors suffering multiple fractures of ribs and evisceration. They put a "protective covering" to pretend that they are protecting the horse, but in reality it's to avoid the public see the wounds in the horse.

* Blood loss and injuries into the spine prevent the bull raises his head, he's weak and almost blind. Now is when the cowardly bullfighter can get closer to him.

* The bull is crossed with a sword of 80 cms in length, which can destroy the liver, lungs and other organs.
If the bull is lucky, the sword will go through his heart. If he has no luck, he will begin to drown in his own blood. In this case it will be necessary the descabello.

* The descabello: the bull is stabbed in the neck with a long sword, ending in 10 cms blade. The bull is very strong and he usually doesn't die with this. He falls to the ground, moribund but still suffering.

* The bull is finished off with a dagger of 10 cms. They try to sectione the spinal cord between vertebrae 'atlas' and' axis'. The muscles of the bull are paralyzed and he cannot breathe, he dies from asphyxiation, often drowned in his own blood, which comes bubbling through the mouth and nose.

* The bull is dragged across the bullring for everybody to see. People shout and clap to the bullfighter while the bull, who is still conscious, suffer and leave a huge trail of blood throughout the tour.
________________________________________________________

Do you think I can be proud of be Spanish?
The whole world knows Spain because of bullfighting...
This torture is our symbol.
We are the tormentors.
THE ONES WHO THINK BULLFIGHT IS ART... MUST BE CRAZY.

I wish the world knows my beautiful country for other reasons...

Long live the bulls!
But no the bullfights!