Spain, is a warm and inviting location that is a home away from home during the summer months. Thousands of tourists, including myself, prepare for the two weeks of sun, sand and sea from the moment we book the flights. With welcoming locals as well as idyllic scenery, Spain is and always will be a favourite European destination of mine. However there is one prominent factor that stays in my mind….
             “Book your place to the Bullfight of the summer” and “Day trip tickets including dinner and front row seats at the best bullfight in town” are the phrases similar to those I spotted strolling along the beach front one blissful evening. The waves brushed the sand as we walked along the front, with the harmonious colours of the sun setting behind us. In terms of a holiday evening walk it was perfect. Although the posters stuck in my mind and I felt outraged for the rest of the night and still to this day. When you are at home, going about your day to day life, you are aware that these torturous events happen. However, seeing the posters enticing people to witness a barbaric act hit me hard like a tonne of bricks swinging full pelt into my chest.

Shall I put it into perspective?

You do not have to be an animal advocate to understand the obvious immorality here. Those who turn a blind eye to this act need to have the truth hit them like it hit me that sunny, Spanish evening. With thanks to PETA, the horrifying facts regarding bullfighting are circulated throughout social media. So read these without flinching and without an awful feeling of disgust and sadness rise within you. I guarantee you can’t.

• 250,000 bulls are massacred ever year during bullfights around the world. This act does not solely happen in Spain, others are guilty for it too!
• Some areas of Spain have banned bullfighting, but there are many yet to realise bullfighting is no longer acceptable!
• Horses suffer too! Over 200 die a year from being gored by the terrified bull. Don’t blame the bull, blame the fight!
• The event the “running of the bulls” consists of the poor animals being chased down narrow streets subjected to electric shocks. The bulls are thoroughly injured during this idiotic event , and are then made to go into the bull ring to be unfairly killed.
• At the start of the “fight,” men attack the bull with sharp lances and thrust it into the bull’s back and neck, ensuring the bull cannot lift its head. The poor bull is now desperately trying to escape with nowhere to turn. Other men find pleasure now in throwing more lances, causing the bull to suffer a slow agonising wait until the matador eventually attempts to kill him with a sword. Sometimes the matador can miss, leaving the bull paralysed. The bull is dragged away still alive, as well as having his ears and tail cut off which acts as the monstrous matador’s trophy. Can you imagine being tortured and then paralysed, being aware of everything that was happening to you? (Source for these facts: PETA UK http://www.peta.org.uk/issues/animals-not-use-entertainment/bullfighting/ )

Stand up and speak up!

It is extremely difficult to express the violent, atrocious and evil “fight” in one piece of writing. I cannot bare to think about what those creatures must go through in their lifetime. Raised to be tortured and murdered? If that was a human what would people say? I salute those who speak out against this disgusting act as those are the people who will make the change from lowering bullfighting to it becoming extinct and thrown in the gutter where it belongs. 
                Tourists need to understand the sheer brutality of the “fight” when they look at the posters, before saying to their wife on their walk to the beach “Oh shall we go and see this love, I have heard it is a Spanish cultural tradition?” It may appear to be tradition, if you can class tradition as violently torturing an innocent animal for the pleasure of gaining false power for five seconds and gaining profit from the subjection of hell to a poor animal!
           Bullfighting does not belong in this world, it never has in my eyes. What is also ironic is the verb “fight” they use to define the act. Since when has a fight consisted of  weakening the other side in order to make sure they cannot fight back? In a boxing fight, would the other boxer be tortured and made to be defenseless? Would he be speared to death by not just one monster, but dozens? A fair fight would be the matador with no spear and the bull in a field. Shall we see who would be the powerful one then?
             Animals should not be exploited for the purpose of entertainment. If this entertains you then you are not sane. One day this act will stop. I hope to be in this world still when this happens. What the animals need are our voices. What use are we if we do not use our voice to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves?

In order to comply with the use and licensing terms of this image, the following text must must be included with the image when published in any medium, failure to do so constitutes a violation of the licensing terms and copyright infringement: © Tomas Castelazo, http://www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADead_bull_at_bullfight.jpg / This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 

To find out how to stand up for the bulls and other animals visit: http://www.peta.org.uk/issues/animals-not-use-entertainment/bullfighting/