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bullfighting

Bullfighting is a performance which takes places in Spain, France, Portugal and some countries of South America. Its origins are in the Bronze Age as a demonstration of courage, and then it “evolved” in the current bullfights when they appear in Spain in the XII century.

It consists in torturing a brave bull until it is killed in three steps: first the “picadores”, men riding horses who use lances to wound the animal, make the bull lose blood to debilitate it by sticking their lances in its back repeatedly. Then the “banderilleros” spike the “banderillas” (small flags which are actually like two big sticks wrapped by ornaments and that have hooks at the end) in its back also with the same purpose (up to 3 pairs of banderillas). Finally, once the bull is exhausted and bleeded (sometime it can’t even move), the bullfighter (torero) kills it with a small sword (the maximum allowed length is 80cm). Most of the times the bull is not killed with one thrust because for that he has to reach the heart of the animal and it is necessary a lot of precision to do that, so they continue lunging the bull until it is dead or after several tries they cut the bull spinal cord so it cannot move and it is easier to kill the bull.

In 2006 the group Investiga carried out a poll to check the opinion of the Spanish population about bullfighting, and the result was that the 26.7% of the respondents were interested in it, while the 72.1% were not, and bullfighting is forbidden in Cataluña and Canarias (Spain).

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