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Matthew Olson's avatar

Thank you for this fair, detailed report.

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LF Nowen's avatar

Well, I found this very interesting. Thank you.

I’ve never been to a bull fight. In Canada the closest equivalent would be amateur bow/crossbow hunting where a hapless hunter has to track the injured animal to finally kill it (this is a solitary activity of suffering and humiliation for both hunter and hunted). As a cultural outsider I’m generally more sympathetic to arguments against bullfighting. However, the fact that the meat is consumed is an important thing.

I think the way most of us, in industrial/post-industrial societies, eat and consume packaged meat genuinely warps the human heart and mind in relation to our participation in the killing of animals (as mentioned in the article re: inhumane factory farming conditions). Ideally we would have a relationship to all the meat/fish we consume, by raising it, catching it, killing it ourselves. This undergirds the intrinsic violence with a sense of gratitude and an understanding of the ‘exchange’ which is taking place between human and whatever creature involved. This is simply not possible for most people now. The suffering animal and the mechanics of processing are utterly abstract to us when we buy our packaged steaks for the BBQ. Very few, I would wager, give thought to the actual creature who has died in order for people to have a meal. In the case of bullfighting, at least the individuals eating the meat are aware of the beauty and power of the animal they are eating. They have some sort of connection with the bull and the process, by some sort of cultural participation.

A related anicdote: we lived in Portugal for a time, and the first time I went to a farmers’ market I saw all these cute rabbits in cages and I said to my wife how interesting it is that they sell pet rabbits at the farmers’ market… It didn’t take long for the penny to drop.

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