California Bullfights Under Scrutiny

I've said here before that the bloodless bullfights in California were alternatives to the bloody versions in Spain and Portugal. But I was WRONG! Looks like animals are not being respected there either. So I've changed my mind...and admit I made a mistake.

I should have know it wouldn't be this easy.

"Bloodless bullfights" have been canceled for this year’s Portuguese festa, in part because of an ongoing investigation into animal cruelty charges against bull owners, organizers said, but mostly because of the host organization’s financial troubles.

At last year’s festa, the area’s largest Catholic celebration, police and animal-rights observers saw blood trickling from a bull’s eye and from its shoulder blades in the dirt arena during a bullfight billed as bloodless. From underneath a patch of supposedly protective Velcro, blood steadily streamed down the animal’s shoulder, staining its tan hide. One other bull bled from an identical injury on its back.

State law forbids animals to be bled for entertainment, and last year, on a tip from an anonymous informant, Tracy police and local animal-rights volunteers showed up unsolicited to the bullfights to see for themselves whether the standard was being met.

It wasn’t.

The bulls’ owner, Joe Martin, was charged with animal cruelty and ordered to stop using sharpened spears to aggravate the animals. Prods used in the fights are allowed only if they’re blunted. Those used on at least two of Martin’s bulls had metal barbs.

Thanks to Stockton's Delta Humane Society for their work on this.