Bullfights

[shura]

Now that I have returned from Spain, i wish to impart some of the knowledge i gained about one of the country's oldest and richest traditions: Bullfighting. Or as they call it in Spain "La Corrida Del Toros"  



The Bulls
Only the bravest, strongest, and most aggressive bulls are selected for the ring. The bulls and cows are strategically bred to produce genetically superior offspring. Their bloodlines date all the way back to the wild bulls of the Iberian Peninsula (Before Spain and Portugal split into two distinct countries).
On the farm, the bulls live in pampered luxury. They are fed the highest quality food, are given lots of exercise and roaming space outside, and sleep in the most comfortable accommodations. They live like kings. For this reason, the meat of the slaughtered bull also makes the tastiest burgers

Growing up, the bulls are not allowed to see human beings on foot. They are fed and taken care of by a man mounted on horseback. This is done intentionally so that the first time a bull actually sees a human is in the ring. To the bulls, the humans in the ring are seen as unfamiliar and strange, giving the matador a slight advantage.
Contrary to popular belief, bulls are not enticed by the color red; they are actually colorblind and have very poor vision. Because bulls have a lot of difficulty focusing their vision on stationary objects, they tend to divert their eyes to only objects that are moving. The bulls are not enticed by the color of the matador's cape, but rather by the fluttering movement of it. The reason why the matadors cape is often colored red, is because it becomes stained with blood as the battle progresses



The Matadors
The matadors are trained in a special bullfighting school in Madrid from a very young age. In the school they are taught specific techniques on how to taunt the bulls, subdue them, avoid their charges, react quickly, and maneuver with grace. The swinging of the cape is done to confuse and tire the bull, making it easier to kill. There are two capes used in the ring. The Capote is a heavy and more decorative cape, colored pink and yellow, which is used in the beginning of the fight to rile the bull up, test the beast's ferocity, and allows the matador to observe how the bull behaves and reacts. This is also where the matador gets to show off his abilities. The second cape, which is red, is the cape used when the fighting actually takes place. it has a special slot in the fabric where the matador can insert his sword to adjust the width of the cape or "target", and hide the sword until the exact moment of the kill.



During the first stage of the fight, the matador is joined by 2 assistant matadors who also carry capotes, and the 3 of them taunt the bull and rile it up to make the actual fight more intense. Besides the assistant matadors, there are also 2 Picadors mounted on horseback who appear in the ring. The picadors jab the bulls between the shoulder blades with a spear to weaken and tear the shoulder muscles to fascilitate the final kill. The horses are donned in protective padding because they are often charged violently by the bulls. In the fight i saw, a bull charged a picador so aggressively that he fell of his horse and the horse was tipped over and flipped onto its back. so good.

Picador pictured below:


Weapons and Fight

After this stage in the fight, the picadors and assistants leave and the matador is left fighting the bull one on one.
The weapons pictured below are what the main matador uses to slay the bull.



The feathery javelins with the hooks at the end are called Bandeiras. The matador attempts to stab the bull 3 times with two bandeiras between the shoulder blades. the hooks allow the javelins to stay in place and the feathers are there for decoration. In total the bull gets pierced by 6 bandeiras.  This stage of the fight is unbelievably dangerous as the bull is often sent into a blind and violent rage




The long Rapiers pictured above are used in the final kill. The matador jabs the full rapier into bulls back right between the shoulderblades. This severs the aorta and causes the bull to bleed out internally. as the bull continues to move and thrash about, the sword displaces itself within the body, slicing up more organs and filling the bull's lungs up with blood. The bull begins to stagger, cough up blood, and eventually collapse to the ground



the small knife pictured above next to the rapier and the javelin is sometimes used in the occurence that the bull collapses to the ground but is not fully dead or is still moving. The knife is jabbed into the bulls neck, cutting the spinal chord, and paralyzing it so that it can stop moving and die. the entire fight lasts about 15-20 minutes and the fight does not end until the bull is dead. Pictured below is a bull getting cut with the dagger after it has fallen.



after the fight ends, the bull is dragged out of the ring ceremoniously, and then a new fight begins. each bullfighting show contains 5-6 fights

if you have a strong stomach, go watch some vids on youtube. but be warned, most of the bullfighting vids on youtube are by animal rights activists slandering the sport. but they still contain footage of the fight and are therefore still fun to watch!
i hope you enjoyed this topic  !!!!!

[rtil]

can you order bullfight burgers after the show

[Ashington]

Definately a nice educational perspective on the sport for once. I never got to see any bullfights when i went to Spain apart from briefly on a TV in a cafe somewhere. Will have to give some bullfight vids a watch now. I give dis 10 capes out of 10.

[Lats, Squats, & Oates]

how retarded

[lenko]

i knew next to nothing about this, didn't even know the bulls got killed. pretty interesting

i'm going to spain in late august so i might try and catch one

[Lats, Squats, & Oates]

you should try and catch bone cancer so you can document your slow death process in a tba thread and i can post in it and call you gay

[spite]

Woah thanks this was interesting, I didn't know much of this at all.  

I'm one who doesn't like bullfights though.  However rich of a culture it maybe I don't find entertainment through live torture (or any justification for it).  I'm not trying to start a debate I'm just stating where I stand on this.

nevertheless, good to know

[Necronomitr0n]

tl;dr



nah jk, but really, I foundthis to be quite educational and informative. thanks v. much

[jjjjjjjjjj]

yessss

[lenko]

you should try and catch bone cancer so you can document your slow death process in a tba thread and i can post in it and call you gay

bitch i cant die i'm fuckin invincible

[Ashington]

the meat of the slaughtered bull also makes the tastiest burgers

If Mcdonalds had these burgers they'd be invincible!

[shura]

@ rtil: yes you can, but im not sure how you get it. i think they sell the meat to butchers first. i wanted to try and get one but it is the most expensive meat you can buy in spain

@ lenk: madrid and seville are the two largest ones. definitely go to one of those if you can

@ spite: actually, a lot of spaniards are opposed to this and i completely understand why. there have been a lot of movements to ban it but since its the 2nd most popular sport in the country after soccer, and it rakes it tons of cash and keeps a lot of people employed, i doubt it'll happen anytime soon

[Lats, Squats, & Oates]

they could put all the people working in bullfighting to work in sewage. there is always more shit to be cleaned up. maybe theyd be cleaning up bull burger poop and it would be the ultimate irony..

[emanhattan]

I have seen plenty of bullfights and I have a few torero/bullfighter friends in my country. While I respect their point of view towards bullfighting thing I do not like this sport/art/whatever anyone wishes to call it.

persnally I dont see how killing an already wounded animal makes you more of a man. 4 banderillas + being teased and further wounded by the picador. I think it is brutal and one-sided.

also in some arenas they beat the bull´s testicles befre the match to make it angry and get his blood running. kinda in like a rodeo.

Killing an animal for entertainment purposes under such uneven circunstances isnt ok in my book

[shura]

I have seen plenty of bullfights and I have a few torero/bullfighter friends in my country. While I respect their point of view towards bullfighting thing I do not like this sport/art/whatever anyone wishes to call it.

persnally I dont see how killing an already wounded animal makes you more of a man. 4 banderillas + being teased and further wounded by the picador. I think it is brutal and one-sided.

also in some arenas they beat the bull´s testicles befre the match to make it angry and get his blood running. kinda in like a rodeo.

Killing an animal for entertainment purposes under such uneven circunstances isnt ok in my book

thats fine if you're against it. i personally dont think that bullfighting is any worse than how they treat animals in slaughterhouses for food consumption. the way i see it, at least the bull lives in luxury before it is killed, and none of the meat is wasted.

but yeah the testicles thing is kind of fucked up, what the fuck is wrong with you mexicans they dont do that in spain

[emanhattan]

o but they do!

[shura]

shit!