|
Q: How many Blood Fiestas are there?
A: At least ten thousand but up to 20 thousand or more.
The villages are supposed to obtain a license to hold
a Blood Fiesta. This is to ensure that various crowd safety rules are
complied with or that the village has sufficient accident insurance
etc. and this all costs money. Therefore there are many unlicensed fiestas.
Consequently it is impossible to get an accurate figure
and all our figures have to be guestimates. The conservative figure
of 15,000 has been quoted in the Spanish national press but it has also
been quoted that that there are 2,000 fire bulls in the Province of
Valencia alone.
Return
To List
Q: When do they take place?
A: Throughout the year, almost every month has it's share of fiestas,
peaking in late summer.
Return
To List
Q: Where do they take place?
A: In most regions of Spain.
Catalonia is the most progressive region of Spain having
passed an animal law in 1988 which has prohibited the worst excesses
of Blood Fiestas in their region. Bullfighting is of little interest
to Catalans, so the associated Blood Fiestas have stopped in the main,
but there are still one or two towns that persist in holding such fiestas,
despite being fined heavily each year.
Galicia and Asturias are not in the main blood fiesta
country either. Bullfighting and bull fiestas have been banned in the
Canary Islands, although cock fighting is legal and very popular there.
Return
To List
Q: What types of animals are used in Blood Fiestas?
A: The real victims of Blood Fiestas are cattle. More than 27,000 bulls,
cows or calves, some as young as a few weeks die annually. In addition
to the 8,000 bulls (approximately) that die in the bullring.
These animals are the surplus of the bullfighting industry,
sold off for various reasons such as: no use for breeding, slightly
deformed or impaired, (i.e. blind in one eye, lame, badly shaped horns),
too young, too old, or in the cases of many of the bulls, too big, too
brave, or too unpredictable for the matador.
Also depending on the type of fiesta, chickens, pigs,
ducks, pigeons, squirrels and geese are used.
There are some fiestas with goats and an odd one or
two with donkeys.
Return
To List
Q: How do the villages get hold of cattle. Who pays for
them and to whom do they pay the money?
A: When the village organises it's fiesta, they contact or are contacted
by the breeders of fighting bulls. The Ayuntamiento (town hall) pays
for most of the animals from public monies, which often include subsidies
from regional and national funds.
The animals fetch a grossly inflated price as Brava
cattle, selling for 3 or 4 thousand pounds per animal. A village of
4,000 inhabitants may easily spend £50,000 of public money on
a week's blood fiesta.
It is also common for a Mayor to receive a 'kickback',
from the breeder for putting the business his way.
This is very lucrative sideline for the bull breeders
and it is why they have mercilessly pushed these things onto the villages,
the breeders brag that there is more money in fiestas than in bullfighting.
Return
To List
Q: What happens to the animals in the Blood Fiestas?
A: Chickens are hung by their feet from a rope, and decapitated by either
a sword, often blunted to make it more 'fun', or have their heads wrenched
off manually.
Another variation on this is to bury the birds in a
box or in the earth with just their heads sticking up, then they are
beaten to death or their heads hacked off with swords.
Ducks have their wings clipped and are thrown into a
river or the sea and dozens of swimmers try to catch them. The birds
can be pulled apart in the tug of war.
Geese are strung up by their feet and have their heads
wrenched off manually.
Pigeons and squirrels are imprisoned in tiny pots suspended
from a very high pole, the pots are stoned until they break and the
birds and animals fall out alive or dead.
The most famous goat fiesta is that of Manganeses de
la Polvorosa where a goat was thrown from a church tower. FAACE
saw two goats mortally injured. If a goat survived the ordeal, it was
killed and eaten afterwards. FAACE managed
to bring enough pressure to obtain two Ministry of the Interior orders
forbidding the fiesta, but the village defied them and the practise
continued until January 2000.
The most notorious donkey fiesta is at Villanueva de
la Vera where Vicki managed to get two donkeys out, the famous Blackie
and another donkey Jose.
The animal used in 1986, was killed by drowning it in
the village fountain.
No donkey has been killed since then, but the animal
always has a terrible ordeal in the hour and a half it is on the streets.
Pigs are greased and set loose to be caught by crowds
of men, the animal is nearly always badly injured in the struggle and
sometimes they are pulled and crushed so badly they literally burst.
NB. For cattle - see below
Return
To List
Q: What are the worst examples of these fiestas?
A: The worst of all the fiestas for cruelty are those
using cows, bulls or calves.
With so many fiestas centred on cattle, it is true to
say that any unimaginable horror can be done to one of these animals,
and probably is.
From our own experience and witness we know that a cow,
calf or bull condemned to a blood fiesta can die from stabbing, strangulation,
spearing, and multiple injuries. It can be thrown down from a height,
deliberately and repeatedly knocked down by a car or tractor, or drowned.
Before it dies it can suffer rape by sticks or metal
spikes, live castration, have its horns, tails and ears ripped off,
be blinded or burned.
It's torture can last to up to five hours.
Return
To List
Q: How are the cattle fiestas linked to bullfighting?
A: The major link is that all the cows, bulls and calves
sold to the villages are bred by the breeders of the fighting bulls.
The fiestas provide a very lucrative outlet for the 'wastage' of bullfighting
stock, indeed it makes the whole business financially viable. The bullfighting
law also protects the encierros, suelta vaquillas, becerrados, and all
the other activities in fiestas using cattle. The most recent in this
series of regulations was passed in 1992.
In addition to the obvious immediate financial return,
there is another almost equally important advantage in pursuing these
tactics for the breeder of fighting cattle and the bullfighting industry.
Through the network of bullfighting Penas clubs in the villages, the
general 'aficion' is initiated, nurtured, sustained and in some instances
subtly enforced. Thus providing the continuance of the Corrida at it's
most grass roots level. In the long term this brings far greater remuneration
into the industry than the yearly cash income for the animals and paraphernalia
used in the fiestas. It ensures constant regeneration and continuance
for the bullfight and associated practices, against the natural order
of progress and development.
Bullfighting is the flagship of cruelty in Spain and
while torturing an animal to death for entertainment is called the National
fiesta, a shadow is cast on every animal.
Return
To List
Q: Have Blood Fiestas gone on for centuries?
A: There are some preposterous claims made for the provenance of bullfighting.
In the 1980's, the then Dean of the University of Salamanca,
a Dr. Ortega, addressed Intergroup at the European Parliament. In his
florid and emotional defence of the Corrida he cited a prehistoric origin,
some thirty thousand years ago.
As so little is actually known of such distant prehistory,
this supposition was both arrogant and laughable. However the adherents
of the bullfight persist in their flamboyant imaginings.
Any ancient depiction of horned or tusked animal is
liable to be claimed and described as a fighting bull. Assyrian, Egyptian,
Mithraic and ancient Greek religious rites are all regarded by the chroniclers
of the Corrida as the absolute antecedents. In the early 1990's Greek
Academia, in a response to such claims attached as justification of
a staging of bullfighting in Athens, published a stinging rebuttal.
However the bullfight industry persists with it's hazy
and outrageous mythology. It is interesting to note what would appear
to have a very obvious similitude, the use of cattle, especially bulls
in the persecutions of the Roman games is quickly passed over.
The arena, the spectators, the gladiatorial bestiarios
with their training schools, the straw dummies and a not infrequent
supply of the condemned to add an extra diversion, are not really claimed
with any enthusiasm for the lineage of the Corrida, perhaps because
of the connotations.
A form of bull hunt existed in Spain from the Middle
Ages. The nobility throughout Europe enjoyed a bloody chase for their
recreation. Such diversions as the bull hunts were organised occasionally
to celebrate important Royal events. They were very infrequent and documentation
is sparse.
The objective of spearing an unpredictable foe from the
saddle played a part in maintaining the military dexterity required
of a knight. The times of the Austrians in Spain saw a greater frequency
and added panoply to these events which became big focal points of celebrations
in the major city squares. The valiant nobles backed up not only by
their henchmen, but sometimes a squadron of infantry. The odds against
the bull, then as now, totally stacked.
As the interests of the aristocracy changed and the House
of Habsburg was succeeded by that of Bourbon, the spearing and knifing
of bulls and cows was no longer considered a suitable diversion. In
the 18th century, the populace took interest in a changed form of bull
tormenting and killing, this was practiced in the main on foot and was
the true ancestor of the modern corrida. Developed greatly in the slaughterhouses
of Andalucia and spread through the towns and villages, it created the
first professional toreros.
Tauromaquia as practiced in the village fiestas has within
it many of the elements of the earlier years, although subject to much
change. Some of the festivals have an early provenance, events such
as the Fiesta of San Juan, that takes place on 24th June in Coria, where
14 bulls are tortured with darts then killed during the fiesta week,
certainly has a provenance centuries old, but it is not an unbroken
tradition, being revived in the early 1980's after years of being virtually
forgotten, the darts are a recent development too.
Tordesillas, where bulls are speared to death in September,
originated in the 15th Century.
Medinaceli, which takes place in November, is perhaps
the original fire bull fiesta (where bulls carry flaming torches on
their horns) it originated in the reconquest of Spain.
Conversely many of the fiestas are of a modern creation,
Manganeses de la Polvorosa, where goats were thrown from the Church
tower, only started in 1975.
This is the case with thousands of fiestas, especially
those involving cattle, they have been inaugurated because they bring
big money to the bull breeders and have been part of a massive sales
drive.
In even the most ancient traditions they have not been
totally unbroken, most have been resuscitated after long periods of
lapse and new abuses masquerading as traditional, are created each year.
The great thinker Dr. Samuel Johnson said 'the antiquity
of an abuse is no justification for it's continuance,' this is very
applicable to the situation in Spain, and old wrongs should not inspire
new.
Return
To List
Q: If bullfighting and cattle fiestas stopped, would
there not be a danger that the unique species of bull, Bos Tauros Ibericus
would be lost to the world?
A: There is a general misconception amongst people including the media,
who have onlv a passing interest in bullfighting, that the Toro de Lidia
is a pure and unaltered species. This misconception is fostered deliberately
by the Industry.
The auroch was the animal depicted in pre-historic cave
paintings, a large longer coated bovine. Millennia later a race existed
that has been named Bos Taurus Africanus, this beast is said to have
evolved and changed into Bos Tauros Ibericus. This all is believed to
have happened at least three thousand years ago when all this can only
be guessed at.
What is known is that in the late 18th century and 19th
century, seven different races of cattle were bred to create the animal
that became the Toro de Lidia, from these seven branches four main types
were evolved.
Although the public conception of a fighting bull is
the type exemplified by the Osborne hoardings, bearing a gleaming sable
black coat, the reality is there are many allowed colourings and markings,
and conformations of horns that can be accepted as a fighting bull.
The true race has not existed for millennia, the approximated
hybrid, could anyway be preserved without the torture of the corrida,
if it was thought necessary.
Return
To List
Q: Are these type of festivals unique to Spain?
A: In England we had bull running and baiting exactly as in Spain for
over 1,000 years until it was banned by Parliament in 1835. Most countries
of Europe had similar festivals, the chickens killings were common in
England, Italy, Belgium and Germany. In Eastern Europe, pig and chicken
killing festivals still exist. The tragedy is that most countries have
banned such cruelty, Spain has revived it.
Return
To List
Q: Spain is a Catholic country, what does the church
do about it?
A: Spain, under it's Constitution is a country of free religion. The
Catholic church does not have the power it once had, the congregations
are small and mainly elderly. The church stays neutral, they celebrate
the Saint's days with masses and processions, the laity celebrate with
bullfights and Blood Fiestas together with discos. The observance of
a Saint's day to most Spaniards is very much like the observance of
Christmas to many Europeans, a celebration but little to do with religion.
Referring once again to Manganeses de la Polvorosa, which is an interesting
microcosm, the priest in the village has condemned the Goat throwing
in the local press, he has blocked up the access from the church into
the tower, and goes away for the day. The tower has an outside door
that gives access, the Mayor has the key to this, and he opens the door
for the youths to drag the poor goat up.
There have been a couple of bullfighting priests in recent
years, one who is now dead was forbidden by his Bishop to take part
in bullfights. The Church chooses to ignore the blood fiesta issue,
when we have asked their help for the animals they have spoken only
of the issue of human abortion. Some Bishops attend bullfights, and
accept funds raised from bullfights for the church, as in the building
of the new Madrid Cathedral.
We have sent the Pope evidence of some of the fiesta
atrocities but have received no acknowledgment.
Return
To List
Q: Won't the King and Queen help the animals?
A: King Juan Carlos is an obsessive hunter, he is also the Royal Patron
of Bullfighting, his Mother the Countess of Barcelona, even though she
is in a wheelchair, attends many major bullfights each year.
Vicki met Queen Sofia when lecturing at Complutense University,
Madrid. Vicki presented her with some of the FAACE
evidence of the Blood Fiestas. Queen Sofia is a sensitive and cultivated
woman, she is also a vegetarian, and does not attend bullfights - but
her position does not allow her to become involved.
Return
To List
Q: Can the European Parliament do anything?
A: At present they do not have political competence, we would like them
to at least take a moral stance. In 1989 German M.E.P. Gerhard Schmid
from Regensburg presented a report calling for a ban of bullfighting
and Blood Fiestas and bloodsports throughout Europe. It was brought
down by Spanish/Irish/Danish manipulation of Parliamentary procedure
and went out of time. There have been no further attempts to date. At
present despite a hard fought campaign on our behalf, the breeders of
fighting bulls are receiving a subsidy under the C.A.P. scheme (common
agricultural policy.) There should be no question of bullfighting receiving
support from European taxpayer's money!
Return
To List
Q Have you had any success in your campaigns?
A. Yes, we have rescued some animals, and some villages exposed by FAACE
have been prosecuted. During the period of FAACE's work in Spain and
attendant massive publicity campaigns in Europe and the USA a number
of Blood Fiestas have been stopped and Spain has instituted a number
of animal regulations in various cities and regions. Perhaps the greatest
success of all for the animals is that in the last few years, the problem
has been recognised and acknowledged, instead of being totally denied.
Return
To List
Q: Why do the people who enjoy Blood Fiestas do these
things?
A: That is perhaps the hardest question to answer, in our experience
there are various reasons: peer pressure, intimidation, it is the accepted
thing to do, social malaise, and brainwashing. The youth or man who
gets the testicles of the slain bull is the hero of the hour like the
king for a day in old English folklore.
For centuries the concept of respect for animals has
been and still is absent in the Spanish educational system.
But the main reason they do it is because they do it.
In the Salamanca region some villages had stopped their
chicken killing festivals, to celebrate St. Anthony, Spain's patron
saint of animals, by January 1997. When asked why they stopped they
reply: "We don't do that sort of thing anymore, only savages do
that!"
Return
To List
Q: Is there anyway we can help?
A: Don't attend bullfights, or buy bullfighting souvenirs, make your
views on bullfighting and Blood Fiestas known, write to the Spanish
Embassy.
If you see any cruelty to animals
in Spain, complain to the Police there and also the Town Hall.
Remember you are not alone, a growing number of Spaniards
disapprove of such cruelty but it is sometimes hard for their voice
to be heard.
Return
To List
© 2001 FAACE
|