Just when we thought the world couldn’t detest bullfighting any more than it already did, bullfighter Sebastian Castella declared, “Like all animals, bulls do not have duties, therefore they do not have rights.” By his own logic, if he were to lose his job as a bullfighter, he would cease to have rights. But one particular bull wasn’t going to wait that long. During a bullfight in Bogotá, Colombia, an angry bull charged at Castella, caught one of his legs, and flipped him head over heels.
The bull then turned and charged again, tossing Castella into the air like a toy.
Unfortunately, Castella finished the “fight” (if killing an exhausted and previously stabbed animal can be called that), but animal advocates are winning the war.
According to a 2013 Ipsos MORI survey, only 29 percent of Spaniards support bullfighting. Barcelona, Spain, has declared itself “an anti-bullfighting city”—the last bullring in the city closed in 2006 because of poor attendance—and 38 Catalan municipalities have followed its lead. The Catalan regional Parliament banned bullfighting, as did the Mexican states of Coahuila, Guerrero, and Sonora. Ecuador banned killing animals for entertainment. After Viana do Castelo, Portugal, banned bullfighting in 2009, the city’s mayor said, “The defence of animal rights is not compatible with spectacles that torture and impose unjustifiable suffering.”
As PETA and fellow animal rights organizations continue shutting down bullrings around the world, Castella will likely reconsider his position on duties and rights—once he’s unemployed.
