The bull is an individual with complex emotions and feelings, he is aware of his environment and what is happening to him, he possesses cognitive abilities. He is a gregarious animal that lives in matriarchal social groups, alone he could not survive; in addition, he recognizes his family members and other animals. Like any individual with a central nervous system, the bull has the capacity not only to feel pleasure, but also pain.

Like all animals, the bull has his own interests, such as not being harmed physically or mentally and living in freedom. The interests of the rest of the animals are as important as ours, to put our interests before those of the bulls or other animals is a speciesist position. Speciesism is the system of oppression that considers the interests of humans over the interests of other animals, imposing on them the status of property, merchandise or object.

Contrary to what those who defend bullfighting maintain, the bull used for fighting is not a fierce animal; on the contrary, he is a peaceful and sensitive animal who prefers to evade the fight and avoid confrontation until he is forced into combat. Only when he has no other alternative will he fight for his life.

The bullfighting industry.

Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, France and Portugal are the eight countries in the world where bullfighting is practiced and is a regulated and legal activity. However, although it is a legal activity, it does not justify the injustice to which not only bulls are subjected, but also other animals that are used and abused by bullfighting. In Mexico (according to figures from the Asociación Nacional de Criadores de Toros de Lidia) this speciesist activity claims the lives of 4,500 bulls a year, not counting the death of steers, calves, heifers and horses. However, worldwide, there is no exact number of bulls that are executed in the bullfighting industry, but some figures state that there are 250,000 animals.

Within the herds.

It is said that “fighting” bulls live idyllic lives in the great pastures or cattle ranches; however, inside the cattle ranches there are practices that involve systematized violence against the animals, causing physical and mental harm. One of the main forms of violence against bulls is forcing them to be born in order to use them in bullfighting spectacles, thus violating their rights, since they are considered resources and not individuals.

All cattle ranches that breed bulls for bullfighting carry out selection processes that involve, on the one hand, the selection of the bull, which is called the sire, and on the other hand, the cow, which in turn, has been chosen for its behavioral characteristics with the purpose of engendering the individuals that will be the next generation of bulls and cows.

Breeders seek to reproduce the greatest number of male animals with certain characteristics so that, in due time, they can be sent to bullfights and novilladas. However, not all the animals that are bred in this type of cattle ranches are males, there are also females, or, being males, they do not have the characteristics of bravery and stamina. For this reason, the destiny of the females and the males -whom the breeders call 'waste' because they are not "apt" for bullfighting or to be mothers- are used in other bullfighting events such as the running of the bulls, "mojigangas", pilgrimages and festivals of bullfighting dwarfs. In the end, the moment the bulls and heifers are no longer useful for the exploiters, they will be sent to the slaughterhouse.

The mark of fire.

Before they reach one year of age, the young calves are subjected to fire branding, a violent and extremely painful procedure that is carried out without anesthesia and inflicts a great deal of stress, as they are separated from their mothers; this last act is known as the 'deshijadero'. Thus, the calves are knocked to the ground and are held by several individuals who tight their legs with a lasso and their bodies are branded, numbered and marked. The fire brand corresponds to the brand of the cattle ranch and the number assigned to them as their ownership status; in addition, cuts are made on their ears to indicate the cattle ranch to which they belong.

Other violent practices that are carried out within the cattle ranches are the "tientas" of two to three year old heifers or two year old male bulls where they try to prove their bravery, by passing them through the horse test that consists of nailing them with the "puya de tienta". The bullfights behind closed doors in the cattle ranches where the bullfighters, novilleros, picadores, rejoneadores, banderilleros train. The sheathing of the horns so that the bulls do not damage their horns or avoid injuries due to fights with other individuals. Transport, which consists of embarking and disembarking the bulls when they are transported.

The other victims of bullfighting.

Bullfighting uses horses for various purposes: to subdue the bull in the "tercio de varas", in the "rejoneo" and, finally, in the "arrastre" (to drag the bulls to the dragging yard or to the "destazadero", in addition to horses, mules are used in some bullrings).

n the “suerte de varas”, the horses that are used for the picador to introduce the puya have their ears and eyes covered, a bib weighing between 25 and 28 kilograms and a stirrup weighing approximately 30 kilograms are placed on them; at the same time they have to carry the saddle and the picador. The horses are also exposed to a hostile environment that causes them physical and mental harm. In this sense, they risk being charged by the bull, which causes physical trauma such as wounds that are complicated by infections and injuries, leading, in turn, to death. Likewise, they risk falls from which it is very difficult for them to get up and even die eviscerated from goring. Added to this is the profound psychological stress.

The bull does feel.

One of the most used arguments by bullfighting enthusiasts has been that 'the bull does not feel', they have even asserted that the bull secretes so many hormones that they inhibit pain. In addition to the above to justify the speciesist activity of bullfighting, there are those who have dared to say that the bull feels pleasure when he is injured with all these instruments of torment, which is a fallacy. Various opinions worldwide, such as the one carried out by Dr. Beatriz Vanda Canton and her colleagues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, reveal that the bull's body, when subjected to bullfighting, generates defense mechanisms in the face of stress; since his life is in danger and the visible physiological reactions are his survival response: to prepare to escape, to fight and to calm the pain, not to inhibit it. Here is the testimony:

«Yes, stress makes us release adrenaline, adrenaline increases the bull's blood pressure in order to maintain oxygenation in the brain and vital organs, but cortisol is also released so that glucose rises and he has energy to continue holding on, fleeing or fighting, this causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and then he also starts to hyperventilate, that is why the nostrils look as if he is opening and closing his nose flaps and makes us believe that he is angry, no, he is not angry, he is afraid and he is hyperventilating because he is going into acidosis due to all the physical effort he is making».

Like any human and non-human animal, the bull manifests pain and various negative emotional states such as fear, anguish, frustration and depression through its bodily expressions and voice. Expressions of pain and mental suffering are the contracture of the facial muscles, wild eyes (showing more white area of the eye), the position of the head (the deeper the pain the lower it is below the horizontal line of its body), arched back, drooping ears, panting and mooing.

The “destazadero”.

The "destazadero" is the facility in the plazas where bulls are slaughtered, exsanguinated, skinned and butchered to be sold as food. No bullfighting arena in Mexico has a slaughterhouse with the specifications set forth in Mexican official standard NOM-194-SSA1-2004. However, some plazas have these slaughter areas, which are only large, ventilated spaces with abundant water, impermeable floors and iron hooks; other plazas cut the bulls' throats and exsanguinate them on the ground by crushing their bellies; they skin them there and then hang their remains on a truck or van.

At the "destazadero" the bulls are exsanguinated or exsanguinated, which means that the bull is alive. The bulls do not always die in the ring, they are only immobilized in the ring; they are alive when the mules or horses, who are used for dragging, carry them to the slaughter area of the bullring or the parking lot that serves as such.

The legacy, the normalization of violence.

Speciesism is automatically transmitted to new generations, normalizing the use of other animals, normalizing exploitation, domination, violence and murder. From birth we have been taught to use those who are different from us because they belong to another species, generating a barrier, the barrier of speciesism that does not allow us to question the fact of considering the interests of animals of other species or their needs and desires.

Bullfighting is transmitted as a tradition by parents, grandparents, family and the social nucleus to which one belongs, forming a cultural identity that is extremely difficult to question, because that is what has been passed down from childhood, from that family nucleus. Therefore, a child recognizes a bullfighter not as someone who unjustly takes the life of the bull, but as a master, a 'figure', someone brave who faces an animal considered brave, risking his life, that's how his parents inherited it, that's how he learned it.

If you have been taught since you were a child that there is nothing wrong with using and killing a bull, you normalize and justify violence; then you want to be like that man dressed in a bullfighter's costume whom you admire.

Bullfighting is a speciesist practice defended behind the argument of cultural expression and its apparent deep love for the bull of whom they say is the 'axis of the fiesta', and perhaps this cultural and romantic connotation fits in their ideology. However, bullfighting is an expression of domination in which its only interest is to maintain a tradition that uses and inflicts physical and mental damage to death not only to bulls but to other animals. And in this romanticization of violence, it would be convenient for bullfighting enthusiasts to question themselves: how is it that they can love bulls and at the same time subdue them, torture them, and at the same time take their lives?