Portuguese Anti-Bullfighting City Forced to Host Bullfight

As a Portuguese-American, I find this just revolting.

For the whole story, go to Portugal News On-Line.

Prótoiro, the Portuguese Federation of Bullfighting Associations, placed an injunction again Viana do Castelo Town Hall this month after their refusal to allow the event to go ahead on municipal land.

Speaking to Lusa News Agency, Prótoiro President, Diogo Costa Monteiro said that the court “decided that the right to exercise a cultural right was being infringed” and therefore “allowed for the bullfighting ring to be set up.”

The event had also already been authorised last week by the Cultural Events Authority.

For Prótoiro, this ruling “has put an end to the illegal decisions made by town halls in what concerns bull fighting.”

Bullfighting to Appear on Spanish TV Again

From the Telegraph...

State-financed broadcaster RTVE said it would screen a bullfight from the city of Valladolid on September 5, overturning a ban imposed under the previous socialist government.  

In 2006, guidelines prohibited the showing of live bullfights because the "violent images" were unsuitable to be broadcast between 6 and 8 pm, during hours when children were most likely to be watching.

The policy change comes under the new conservative Popular Party government of Mariano Rajoy which is widely seen as opposed to all attempts to curtail the national fiesta in Spain. 

The move immediately provoked anger from animal rights activists, who felt they were making headway against the spectacle after Catalonia banned bullfighting within its region last year on animal welfare grounds. 

"It is clearly a backward step for the welfare of animals in this country," said Silvia Barquero, spokesman for the animal defence lobby group

Mexican Town Opposes Bullfighting

From Latino Fox News......

Mexico's first "anti-bullfighting" town has signed a petition calling on the United Nations to approve a universal declaration on animal welfare.


More than 220 organizations, headed by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, are collecting signatures worldwide to petition the United Nations to adopt the proposed Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.

Teocelo, a town of 15,000 inhabitants, last month became the first Mexican municipality to ban bullfighting and other events that involve animal mistreatment or cruelty.

The town on Thursday was honored by the London-based WSPA, one of the organizations most involved in efforts to abolish bullfighting worldwide

World Wildlife Fund Removes King Juan Carlos for Elephant Hunting

Good for them! What a hypocrite! It's not like Spain has enough problems now, it has to have an idiot king.

From EcoRazzi.....

King Juan Carlos may be the King of Spain, but he is no longer the honorary president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Spain due to his hunting and killing of elephants in Botswana, Treehugger reports.

Four Paws Urges an End to Pamplona Bull Run

Unfortunately, though, it brings in the tourists.

Swedish King Wants to Cull Country's Wolf Population

Unfortunately, he's also one of the presidents of the World Wildlife Fund whose Swedish chapter supports the maintenance of the wolf population. D'oh! From Wildlife Extra.....

Wolves kill elk - But King Gustaf wants to kill the elk so he wants to get rid of wolves And why does he want to do that? Because every year the good king runs an elk hunt in Sweden, along with his son Prince Carl Philip. Despite the fact that some 100,000 elk are shot every autumn in Sweden out of an estimated population of 3-400,000, King Gustaf believes that the presence of 200 wolves might spoil his annual hunt, so has been advocating the culling of as many wolves as possible. Yet to hunt the elk, he himself uses hunting dogs.

Fallout Continues Over Juan Carlos' Elephant Hunting Trip

What an idiot. Read the full story on this NPR page...

As Spaniards grapple with severe austerity measures and 24 percent unemployment, their king is dealing with a different kind of pain — extreme embarrassment over public outrage upon his return from an elephant hunt in Africa that cost nearly $60,000, or more than twice the average salary in Spain. And the Spanish public only found out about the trip because he broke his hip — hence the recent surgery — and had to be airlifted home. The Royal Palace confirmed that this is the first time a Spanish king has ever said he's sorry — at least publicly — for anything. But it's not enough for Rafa Lucia, a social worker smoking in the rain outside a Madrid library. He's been jobless for months. The government cut his local school's budget by 30 percent. And the Royal Palace's budget? "They cut just 2 percent. And now this. It's like, OK, so the government doesn't cut [their budget], and now he's spending the money in Africa killing elephants," Lucia says. Adding Insult To Injury Spaniards can't decide which would be worse — whether their king might have spent public money on his jaunt to Botswana last week, or whether it was paid for by an Arab businessman courting favor, as some reports say. Either way, there are calls for the king's abdication.

King Juan Carlos, Honorary Head of World Wildlife Fund Spain, Caught in Elephant Hunt

D'oh! From the Wildlife Extra News....

April 2012. King Juan Carlos of Spain, Honorary President of WWF Spain, is recovering in hospital after breaking his hip in Botswana where he was on an elephant hunt. Apparently it isn't the first time the King has been shooting big game in Africa, or elsewhere (Apparently he killed a bear in Russia a few years ago too). Whilst not illegal, it shows a complete disregard for his 'subjects' and total contempt for his role as 'Honorary President of WWF Spain'.

Supporters Still Trying to Keep Bullfighting in Spain

I was disappointed that Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa was one of those that signed a petition to keep this cruel and unnecessary torture of animals around. I guess I won't be reading his books!

For the full story, go here to latino.foxnews.

Another Anti-Bullfighting Protest in Mexico City

Yay!!!!! It happened last Saturday the 4th of February.

Mexico often has such an abominable attitude towards animals that it's easy to paint all citizens that way. I'm glad there are exceptions like these protesters.

Matt Damon at a Bullfight? Say It Isn't So!

It's true! He attended a bullfight in Mexico City. That sucks!

Last Bullfight Finally Held in Catalonia, Spain

Good.

Bull Gets Gored to Death in Spanish Festival

I've read some pretty disgusting stuff in writing this blog, but this just pisses me off. As a Portuguese-American, I hate bullfights...and they even have the stupid things in California.

Townspeople in Tordesillas spear a bull to death in some festival tradition dating back to medieval times. It's a "cultural asset." Disgusting.

Excerpted from the Montreal Gazette....

Lance-wielding Spanish townspeople speared a huge fighting bull to the death Tuesday, defying a lone protester who sprayed some of them with an irritant.

Hundreds of people, many on horseback, turned out for the combat with a 608-kilogram (1,338-pound) black bull named Afligido — Spanish for Sorrowful — in the centuries-old "Toro de la Vega" festival.

The massive beast charged through the fortified town of Tordesillas, central Spain, crossing a bridge over the River Duero and into a plain in a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages.

Before the lancing began, a female protester sprayed an irritant at some of those taking part before being taken away by police, a witness to the event said.

Weird Factoid about Cockfighting in Oklahoma

Cockfighting was illegal in Oklahoma until 1963, when a judge ruled that chickens are not animals and therefore unprotected by anticruelty laws.

~U.S. News & World Report, 6 December 1999

Indian Government to Protect Bulls from Entertainment Use

The Indian government has decided to add bulls to the list of animals protected from entertainment uses. This prevents them from being exploited in Goa, an Indian state that had considered reviving the tradition. (Goa was once part of the Portuguese empire which is where the bullfighting ridiculousness comes from....as a Portuguese-American, I can say that.) There are still illegal events though.

Humane Society Puts Pressure on South Carolina's Bear Baying

Ugh, this is barbaric and right out of the dark ages.

From the AP...

A declawed, defanged bear is chained to a stake as hunting dogs bark and snap, trying to force the bear to stand on its hind legs. The training exercise called bear baying is intended to make the bears easier to shoot in the wild and it's only allowed in South Carolina.

Armed with new undercover video of four such events, the Humane Society of the United States is pressuring state officials to explicitly outlaw the practice, which the organization says is effectively banned in every other state. Animal rights advocates say it's cruel to the nearly defenseless bears and harms them psychologically.

Hunters say the exercise popular in the state's hilly northwestern corner helps them train their dogs on what to do when they come across a bear during a hunt.

State law on the issue is murky. Statutes banning animal fighting have a specific exemption for dog training. And while South Carolina's attorney general says animal cruelty laws prohibit bear baying, he hasn't prosecuted any cases.

Humane Society's Explanation for Working with Michael Vick

Found this piece from May 2009. It's the Humane Society explaining why they teamed up with Michael Vick on his community service work. I'm still torn about that, although I certainly understand their logic.

Horrifying Attack on Pregnant Deer in Britain

A gang's dog tore apart a pregnant deer. And they filmed it on their mobile phones. Horrible.

Irish Travel Agency Removes Matador from Advertising

The move was in response from pressure from an animal rights group. It's a small step, but every one counts.

From the Irish Times...

THE MATADOR – one of the most abiding and traditional images of Spain – has been removed from advertising by a leading Irish travel company following a protest by animal rights activists.

The Travel Department confirmed that it had used a photograph of a bullfighter in a newspaper advertisement for a holiday in Spain. The ad was seen by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports which contacted the company to object and the company agreed to withdraw the image from its marketing material.

A spokesman for the tour operator said that the image was “part of a library of stock images” of Spain that were used for print and online media advertising. He said it had not “consciously” used “the iconic image” and stressed that visits to bullfights were not included in its itineraries.

Mexican Activists Protest Bullfighting

Good.