Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)A YOUNG bull has been brutally tortured to death by drunken teenagers in Alhaurin el Grande.
A swarm of youths surrounded the animal in the town’s bullring, engulfing it with kicks, punches and taunts on the last day of the town’s annual feria.
The police and organisers watched as the helpless bull eventually staggered to its death in the Caseta de la Juventud ring.
After the 25-minute beating, the beleaguered bull sank to its knees and was put out of its misery by Seprona officers.
The misery – which was caught on camera – was denounced by the Andalucian Collective Against Animal and Environment Mistreatment (CACMA).
“Although bulls receive blows from time to time, we could never have imagined that one would eventually be beaten to death.”
“It was macabre and horrific,” explained spokesperson Antonio Moreno.
“Although bulls receive blows from time to time, we could never have imagined that one would eventually be beaten to death.”
The ring had been left open overnight, enabling the horde of drunken revellers to begin their torturous act.
Town mayor Juan Martin Seron has now confirmed that bulls will no longer be let loose inside the ring.
“In light of the actions of these unscrupulous individuals, all bulls will now be enclosed.”
However, Seron denied that the bull’s death was a direct result of the baying masses.
He insisted it was caused by a collision with the second bull released into the ring.
You can see it all here:
http://playasdesantelmo.blogspot.com/2010/05/maltrato-animal.html
I think that after seeing the video above, we can all conclude that Juan Seron doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.
>unscrupulous individuals
Yes, people who like and participate in bullfighting are. This really lifts the image of Spain.
How often Have I said that the Spanish are still trapped in the time of the mass murderers Pizarro and Cortez – these and other sub human conquistadores by way of extermination, starvation and infections were directly responsible for the deaths of over 45 million human beings in less than 10 years – more than Hitler/Stalin and PolPot put together.
Don’t forget that every year a bull is tortured, stabbed and speared to death in a town called Castillas.
Why were the Spanish ever allowed to join the EU before they had destroyed all the bullrings. It would be a pleasure for me armed with a Katana and full body armour to chase the cowardly vermin called matadors, corner them and slice them to pieces with pleasure, because only sub-human sick vermin would engage in these acts of cowardice.
That is truly disgusting. Why no-one intervened is beyond me. If the drunks misbehave only a little in Pamplona the members on the peñas will instantly put the miscreant in their place and there is every chance one of the herders will whack the idiots with one of the canes! If that is how they permit the treatment of animals in Alhaurin el Grande then it should be stopped permanently and those in the film charged with animal cruelty.
Did Seprona they arrest anyone, they were apparently there? I would love to know.
Too bad the youths didn’t turn on the cops and organizers who watched!
They are all nuts-those that commit animal abuse and those that watch. Saw a girl taking a drink from her pop bottle and laughing as bull was tortured…And What’s wrong with the Spanish Goverment??? Guess animal torture brings in too much revenue. Rot in hell!!!
Yet another decline in Spanish culture.Having moved back to the UK after living in Alhaurin El Grande for 8 years under Seron, please can someone throw him in jail. He has only just started to pretend he is interested in foreigners. Not true, he now realises we northern europeans brought money to the town and now we are all leaving – why ?
Too late Mr Seron
I live in BILBAO, far from what happened in that village of Malaga. If we are now seeing this is due to the ACTION of the group that could film what was going on inside the bullring, something that HAD ALREADY HAPPENED BEFORE, in previous years.
This is exactly what happens in EVERY single village, town or city where a, so called, bullfight takes place. The only difference is that the mistreatment and the aggressions that a non-human being endures are committed by just a few people called “matador” (literally means killer), decorated by a background orchestra, regulated, normalized and legalized by a blind Government and local institutions who promote this and sell it as “popular”, misconsidering all animal dignity and all the people who are against this “popular” events.
WE NEED HELP. NON-HUMAN BEINGS NEED EVEN MORE HELP. THEY CAN NOT WAIT ANY LONGER AND THEY DO NOT DESERVE LESS.
SHOW YOUR BOYCOTT TO ALL PUBS, EVENTS, COMPANIES WHO SUPPORT THIS TORTURE
Respect and Freedom for all species
Love from Bilbao (Basque Country) sPAIN?
Stuart
45 million killed? Do you know how many people inhabited London in 1500? Pizarro took Inca Empire with less than 200 soldiers. Spanish troops were always known by their fierce, but you’d better turn off tv and open a book.
The willage you are trying to mean is not Castillas (that not exit). You’re taking about Tordesillas and I hope that you’ll not forget, because that is the name of the Treaty by which Portugal and Spain split the New World to avoid conflict.
I share with Kevin Rudd some opinions about inmigrants. We don’t force anybody to love Spain, not even to live here. So if you don´t like it, you have a right to leave and come back to the mist as the sun has not cleared your mind. And please, take your puta katana with you.
Jaun,
25-45 million killed whether by steel or smallpox the result is the same. Genocide. I’m surprised at your Kevin Rudd immigrant comment. Is any critism of spain too painfull for you to bear? Or are you proud of the wife beating, corruption, unemployment, animal cruelty and decline of a once vast but brief empire to a third rate power where your leader doesn’t even speak the language of the rest of the world? Yes we have the right to leave but we have the right to stay, the right to vote and the right to try and change what’s wrong. You have the right to be unhappy about and we have the right not to care. But you are right about the katana.
Ivan,
I regret that any other but Stuart takes my post as an offense to the whole. I’m quite proud that all of you have chosen to live in Spain. But corruption, unemployment…. I could tell you more faults about my country as I share, live and suffer from them longer than you. What do all that have to do with my post? Would you bear me living in England spitting your folk without knowledge?
I hate my stupid prime minister more than any of you but I can´t kill him. All I can do is wait until next election and vote. Two in every three woman killed in Spain are foreigner. Are we supposed to charge with than?
And of course, it’s shamefull what happened in Alhaurin. That is not the image we like to spread from Spain (who could agree with that?). Fiesta Nacional is another thing. It is composed by passion, by art, by the timing of music betweet two coliding titans. It’s not only a bull’s blood but also from the man. Some of you came before and appreciated it (Hemingway, Welles) because they went further than blood. I suppose they were hicks who accompliced all those assassins.
Juan,
Good points well made and your english is very good too.
Just watched the video where they also set the Bull on fire and let it run in the street- What is wrong with people?
They are a bunch of lunatics! and so are the organizers, I blame them the most making blood money-ROT IN HELL
@Juan
Don’t despair, there are many visitors to your country that, if not endorsing some elements of Spanish culture and tradition, at least acknowledge the Spanish people’s right to debate and self-determination surrounding the issue.
Realisticaly, however, it may not be reasonable to expect to encounter sober debate in this forum.
Clearly the bullfight attempts to articulate the noblest values of courage, beauty and élan. In this example, regrettably oft played-out, we instead see our most base and ugly qualities reflected back at us. I think Hemingway & Welles would find such a scene equally risable. Regrettably other posters fail to appreciate that their violent hyperbole is as ugly and cowardly as the behavior of the youths in the clip.
I’m not sure where Spain’s colonial history is relevant, but speaking as an Australian, in a country that continues to struggle to reconcile it’s colonial past, if any of those critics are of English origin the hypocrisy is stunning…
JG epitomises hyerbole at its best. When did nationality have any relevance to whether an act is cruel or not? That’s the issue.
Fred, nationality takes relevance as soon as many of you are involving bullfight with Pizarro. And hypocrisy takes place when that point comes from people who slaughtered in North America, Australia, India, besides of slavering in Caribe…
I know we did too, but I can not accept the critic if it’s done by another hangman.
Juan you just don’t get it. If you keep torturing and abusing animals in this way, and also make it a spectacle for human consumption at the same time, then it just degrades humanity further. Nationality has nothing to do with it.
The images from Alhaurin are not a one-off; it’s a regular occurence all over Spain. I don’t get into what countries did centuries ago because all countries have blood on their hands. What we need is Spain to just say that this act is not really what a (supposedley) modern 21st century country should be doing, looking forward. Stick to nature, you at least know a bit about that lol.
katana man you are a hooligan, a typical English hooligan
Hi everyone,
I used to live in Alhaurin from 2002 – 2008 until I returned to the UK, and think that all of you make many valid points in regards to what happened at the feria.
However, whilst I do not believe that the torturing of a bull by the youths is justified at all, I think that many of the comments from former or current expats are blinded by bad experiences in Spain and an unwillingness to make the differentiation between UK and Spanish culture. We have to remember that bullfighting and an indifferent attitude towards animals is felt in Spain, so to ask as Stuart did that “Why were the Spanish ever allowed to join the EU before they had destroyed all the bullrings?” is an incredulous statement as it is taking away a vital aspect of Spanish culture. Imagine the boot on the other foot, and suggesting that we take away the countryside tradition of hunting. How many persons of middle England would be up in arms about it? So on this vain, it appears that we should be culturally sensitive.
However, I’m not going to adopt a pro or negative viewpoint of Spain and England as this is what this forum suffers from, so we must weigh up the arguements and try not to offend each other through cultural differences, and comments such as ‘rot in hell’. We’re all adults here.
On a final comment though, I would suggest that what happened in Alhaurin between this unfortunate bull and the youths was abhorrent and it must not be stood for. However, having lived there for a number of years, it seems that this is a very rare occurrence.
Best,
George.
Activities such as fox hunting and bullfighting are not equivalent activities, even though I abhor both. A foxhunt is just that, a hunt, across open land. A bullfight is an animal trapped in a ring, injured before the fight begins to set it at a disadvantage, which is then tormented and tortured to death in front of an audience over the course of an afternoon – what honour!! The cultural sensitivity argument is always wheeled out on this point and it needs to be abandoned. Torturing creatures (and breeding creatures for torture) only diminishes the country further.
Okay, firstly I did not mention fox hunting. It was outlawed in the late 1990s by the Labour government, so undervalues your argument to begin with.
Yet whilst I agree that I may not be in favour of a bullfight, it is still a part of culture and who are we, all sat on a forum, to define honour? An example we could use is the Japanese comprehension of honour which entails suicide. The general perception in Western culture is that it is an act of cowardice. There is no correct perception of it. Again, how can we have a discussion without considering cultural sensitivity? Otherwise, it will just degenerate into a slanging match.
Best,
George.
What other hunting did you imply in your post then George? Hare coursing, cock fighting, grouse hunting? It does not matter in any event, since all types of hunting in the UK are literally hunts, they are not trapping an animal in a ring and slowly killing it whilst a crowd watches the whole spectacle.
Anyway, fox hunting is still practiced but in a different way to comply with the letter of the law (horse trailing it is known as) – you don’t know what happens in your own country lol. The Master of Foxhounds association listed 184 active hunts at the start of 2009. So much for the “ban” you mentioned.
You really are going off on a tangent here George; stick to animals being tortured and leave the humans out of it. Because something is cultural does not mean it cannot also be morally wrong. Looks like you’ll have to keep sitting on the fence George.
I live in Spain and I have many wonderful Spanish friends. The only thing I dislike (abhor even) about the culture is the animal welfare, but this will not tarnish what I think about the people who’s country I have chosen to live in. That said, I think that this behaviour is disgusting regardless of nationality. I wish with all my heart that all those involved do actually rot in hell. Let us not bring nationality into this and tar everyone with one brush or their history.
If I saw these drunks my Spanish friends and I would do the same to them as they did to the bull!
BLAH BLAH BLAH
It’s about animal cruelty in the year 2010!
Fred is right!
JG
As an Englishman I deplore this act as I deplore any act of cruelty wherever it might take place, whether it be to human or animal, England or abroad, onw or in the past.
Your comment “if any of those critics are of English origin the hypocrisy is stunning…” is itself stunningly! I could name many countries, cultures and regimes that have carried out/do carry out disgusting acts of cruelty or barbarism, I think maybe your own countries past treatment of indigenous people may fall into this category?
The point you appear to be missing is that many countries have or are changing their approach to the future, after all you can’t change the past any more than you can continually hold it up as an icon of what that particular country now stands for. I don’t call this hypocrisy, it’s something along the lines of progress.
Small and probably irrelevant points, but important from a journalism point of view
1 It is a “Vaquilla” = a heifer, not a bull and not even a bullock
2 The fim clip is marked ‘maltato-animal’ a clear reference to maltreatment
3 On the film clip one sees prominently the words ‘Malditos bastardos’ – a very srtong use of language.
A clear indication that this sort of behaviour is not supported by Spanish people, any more than it is by ex-pats
haven’t you read the story before commenting?
Police and Organizers were watching.
The film producer hardly represents the views of the Spanish people, particularly those who watch this torture.
The Spanish gov.makes $$$$ on these events and will not choose animals over revenue.
How can anybody say that “fox hunting and bullfighting are not equivalent activities”.
Of course they are not, fighting with a bull is much more likely to get you killed than chasing a fox, wouldn’t you agree?
and then goes on to say that “before the fight begins to set it at a disadvantage”,
Right, so a fox is no doubt in an a much more “advantageous” position when running for its life away from trained scent hounds and a group of “men” on horseback.
And I guess that being tormented and tortured to death in front of a bunch of worthless British twats is more honourable than in front of an audience over the course of an afternoon.
British hypocrisy at its highest level, the same kind the cries foul of past treatment of indigenous people by Spain, when in fact, racist British exterminated and mistreated far more natives than any other nation on Earth.
Thoroughly revolting, so much hypocrisy makes me retch, really. But I suppose that is just another part of British “culture”, like the “honourable” hunting of foxes, Aboriginals, etc.
Rafu, I’m glad you agree with me – both activities are of course totally dissimilar; bullfighting is far more torturous and cruel than any type of hunting. For example, a fox being hunted at least has a chance to make an escape – indeed many do. But what chance does the bull have exactly? It starts out injured and is slowly maimed and killed in a place it can never escape from. Bullfighting is therefore just torture, pure and simple.
You show an apalling lack of knowledge about Spain’s own barbaric history, Rafa. This makes you frontrunner for the “Most Ignorant Twat of the Year” award. That “N” on your cap must surely stand for ‘Numskull’ lol.
Good job Spain won the world cup final otherwise you lot in Spain could have had some of this treatment!
I am often puzzle with myself about all these things. I feel for even little rabbits as much as human beings. I just do not agree with us humans. The problem is not only in Spain with the bulls but is all over the world. What about roads in the USA where so many creatures are killed each year? what about the ones in Europe? Deer are killed each year by motorists in the USA and Europe. People even make fun of it and call it Road Kill and even make fake restaurant menus with the names of the creatures. I think that in general regardless of the nations. Animals should not be put behind fences of stadiums and kill by humans and the same goes for animals on the roads. The roads should have tall fences with crossings to prevent the death of animals like the deer.
What can you expect from a country full of beaners? Stupid fools still think it’s a great sport to watch a bullfight.
I’m sure a lot of Spaniards will be included in the great culling of humanity, so we should all just sit back and enjoy the show.
What is the matter with some humans. These helpless animals are Gods creatures and didn’t do anything to you. All of you sickos will pay in the end. I hope you are all tortured to a slow death. Life is short so enjoy your sick ruthless behavior while you can because your time is coming and its sooner than you think. To hell with you all