In Madrid, the administrations are committed to defending bullfighting with different actions and aim to make it become a cultural heritage.
'Bullfighting is a demonstration of freedom and must be protected and defended'. Without in the least thinking about animal welfare, but with an eye towards business, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, together with the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, signed a protocol according to which, both administrations undertake to defend the bullfight with different actions and aim to make it become a cultural heritage.
We rejoiced at the news that this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, bullfights have stopped and we hoped that in Spain, it would become an established practice. But events tell us that unfortunately this is not the case.
Coronavirus stops bullfights: 120 bulls are already saved in Spain
A protocol is signed at the Las Ventas Arena which effectively decrees more funding for bullfighting and complete protection. "The arena is an emblematic place - said the president - and a distinctive sign of what the community is and what the city of Madrid is, that is, freedom, plurality, openness, avant-garde, but also roots and traditions".
A tradition that, however, hides abuse and mistreatment of animals, as revealed a few weeks ago by an investigation by the Lav that showed in Algemesi, Seville and Madrid, bulls violently killed, tortured and executed after a long agony: "Others are seriously injured for the stress, as soon as you enter the arena. In several cases, entertainment puts the lives of those present in the arena at serious risk ”. Furthermore, the video shows real violence on animals, in which the matador hits the bull with the estoque incorrectly, causing severe and slow bleeding, especially from the mouth with excruciating suffering and a slow suffocation of the animals. “In different moments in which the animal has to suffer the" coup de grace ", the puntilla (dagger) is used several times, showing a very slow agony for the bulls involved", said LAV. But to the horror is added another horror: according to what has been discovered, the meat of bulls killed in the arenas is sold in some local butchers and restaurants and transported out of the arenas without any sanitary criteria and in front of minors.
The investigation that reveals all the suffering of bullfighting bulls (funded by the EU)
All things that apparently are overshadowed by carrying on the tradition. The president of Madrid recalled that from the previous municipal government of Madrid "they tried in every way to put an end to bullfighting in the capital" and an order was given to close the Venta del Batán, the Marcial Lalanda bullfighting school and that any reference to the bulls in the programming of the Fiestas de San Isidro has been eliminated ”.
But now, with Martínez-Almeida, the president said: "The Madrid City Council returns to Las Ventas, a space that should never have neglected respect for the people of Madrid, almost one million a year, who come to see bullfighting ”. The protocol also stipulates that the José Cubero “El Yiyo” bullfighting school in Madrid will return to all intents and purposes between the municipal structures of Venta del Batán and students will be allowed to train with cattle and horses.
? @IdiazAyuso takes a new step in defense of bullfighting and signs a protocol with the @MADRID City Council to protect it as cultural heritage. https://t.co/tbaLBM95Tz
– Community of Madrid (@ComunidadMadrid) July 17, 2020
Díaz Ayuso hopes that José Cubero's “El Yiyo” school will continue and continue to be considered one of the most important bullfighting schools in Spain. The aim is to promote it so that great 'bullfighting figures' emerge again.
Both administrations then also undertake to carry out actions to promote bullfighting within their respective powers, including, for example, bullfighting in institutional campaigns to encourage tourism and culture in the region. For the president of the Community of Madrid, bullfighting is “a historical, artistic, cultural and tourist event that has great importance. It would be of great political blindness to move away from the first place in the world ”.
Despite international complaints, bullfighting is the second largest spectacle after football and has an annual economic impact of 414 million euro in the region, which is why much of Spain has no intention of putting an end to a bloodthirsty and merciless spectacle.
Source: Community of Madrid
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- The brutal moment when the bullfighter is gored near the rectum during the Madrid bullfight
- Podemos cancels bullfighting and bicycles instead of bulls in Alicante: animal rights turning point in Spain?
