TRURO, N.S. — There are places where people pay money to sit and watch a living creature being tortured to death.
About 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights every year. A young animal called Bright Eyes was one of these.
Steve Hindi, president of the organization Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), was a member of an undercover team that documented the killing of bulls in Mexico in 1998. He gave the animal the name Bright Eyes as he watched him stand with three companions in a pen. The animal was quiet and friendly, and he watched those around him with bright, inquisitive eyes.
“He really caught my attention because of the way he looked at us,” said Hindi. “He didn’t want any trouble, but he got horrendous abuse, right to the very end. It’s something I will never forget.”
For hours before the bullfights, the animals were deprived of light, food, water and the company of the herd, causing them to become confused and frightened. Before being sent into the ring, they were harpooned.
In the ring, people take turns torturing the animals. Picadors and banderilleros stab the bulls until they are bloody and weak and then the matador takes his turn. Theoretically, the animals will die quickly if the right area if hit, but this rarely happens. Bright Eyes, like most other bulls in the ring, collapsed, his body covered in blood and weapons piercing his flesh. As the animal lay on the ground, he was stabbed in the back of the neck with a dagger, which was twisted around to sever hi spinal cord. Once he was paralyzed, his ears were cut off. Convulsing, he was dragged from the ring to be butchered.
The only countries where this torture still takes place are Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador, although some communities in these countries have banned it.
The animals used in the “running of the bulls” in Spain are hit by spectators and then tortured and killed in the rings.
“Their nature, like most people, is to be peaceful,” said Hindi. “The environment they’re in, and mistreatment, can make them become aggressive but if they’re treated well they just want to live their lives.”
More information on bullfighting can be found on the SHARK website and the Humane Society International website.
