Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee joins PETA against bullfighting

amplify image

Acclaimed novelist and Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee joined PETA in their fight against bullfighting.

In a letter sent to all the members of the European Parliament, the 2003 Literature Nobel Prize winner asked them to support the declaration 0002/2007 that goes against bullfighting in Europe and subsidies to the farms that raise fighting bulls.

Coetzee said: I join my fellow militants of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asking for support to the Beclaration 0002/2007....Bullfighting is promoted a sign of courage but it is really a coward event where an animal is slaughtered and has no chance to survive. Bullfighting is not more than a cruel and bloody spectacle as well as gladiator fighting was in the old times".

Bullfighting

Each year, more than 40,000 bulls are barbarically slaughtered in Spain’s bullrings. Bulls are intentionally debilitated by various means, such as having sandbags dropped on their backs. Drugging is also very common.

In a typical bullfight, the bull enters the arena and is approached by picadors – men on blindfolded horses who drive lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles. This impairs the bull’s ability to lift his head. They twist and gouge the lances to ensure a significant amount of blood loss. Then banderilleros enter on foot and proceed to distract the bull and dart around him while plunging banderillas – bright sticks with harpoon points on their ends – into his back.

When the bull has become weakened from blood loss, the banderilleros run the bull in more circles until he is dizzy and stops chasing. Finally, the matador appears and, after provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword.

If the crowd is happy with the matador, the bull’s ears and tail are cut off and presented as a trophy. A few minutes later, another bull enters the arena and the sadistic cycle starts again.