Bloodthirsty in 2010--Bullfighting, Dogfighting and Stoning To Death
Posted: Friday, August 20, 2010
by Steve Kovacs
The Kovacs Perspective
I was sunk deep into my Lazy-Boy recliner watching the news a few nights ago. My eyes widened when they showed a clip of a huge bull in Spain in a bull fighting ring jump over a dividing barrier directly into the audience. He started stomping and goring many of the spectators who where there to see some serious bloodletting, but not their own.
Many people were shocked to see what they thought was a crazy beast hurting all those innocent bystanders. It is a shame when anyone gets hurt, and by the way no people were killed. However, all bulls in a bullfight are killed. Some people do not know that during a bullfight the bulls are slowly tortured and killed in the ring. Quite often, especially here in the US we only see the cool matador with his "cape" escaping the dumb beast's charges. Well, in fact, that is the "cool" part. The well dressed matador escaping and winning over the beast, seemingly innocently. It gets ugly as the fight continues. The matador pierces the bull repeatedly with a sword type instrument and as time goes on, the bull is finally killed, all in the name of sport. So, when I saw this bull tearing into the spectators who were waiting to see the bull bleed to death I was not surprised at all. Why be surprised? The bull that was bred for its aggressiveness and strength was there to die, for amusement. Yes, for amusement. The bull was doing what circumstances brought him to do.
Bullfighting is close to being illegal in Spain as it should be. Bullfighting anywhere should be illegal. Some will say it is a cultural thing and should be allowed. Nonsense, killing anything for entertainment is wrong and should be stopped.
The same with dog fighting. People breed, train, and then throw dogs into a ring to tear each other up. The way I see dog fighters is that most of the people who actually participate in placing the dogs in the ring, are cowards trying to make up for their own insecurity. I say if you want to be that "bad", jump in a combat ring yourself. There are many human combat rings in the country, some illegal but most legal. These are places where men and women make their own minds up to fight. They are not forced into them as dogfighters do to their animals. Dog fighting is illegal as it should be and we should always support efforts to enforce laws against it.
And finally, the same day I saw the raging bull do what came natural to him, I read that in Afghanistan a young couple were stoned to death for eloping. I read the headline, did a double take, read it again and immediately checked my calendar and confirmed that the year was 2010. For a split second I thought I may have been in the middle ages. Stoned to death for eloping? Well, digging a little deeper I found that the charge was having an affair and eloping. Yes, it seems a female was supposed to marry someone her family told her she must wed. However, even though she was engaged to marry the man, she loved another. She fled the village with the man she loved, who by the way had another wife, but men are allowed to have four wives there. Friends and relatives tricked them back to the village where a religious court promptly sentenced them to death. The sentence was carried out by several hundred villagers and family members.
From the bloodletting of a bull in Spain to the bloodletting of dogs in America to the killing of a young couple in love. Who said we are civilized in 2010? Who says we have evolved and come a long way since the middle ages? Makes you wonder doesn't it? It made me wonder.
What can those of us who are civilized do about these sorts of things? There are things that can be done. Reasonably, through any form of communication, show, explain, and educate others that there is a healthy, wholesome way to live life and senseless bloodletting is unquestionably not a part of the equation.
Bullfighting is close to being illegal in Spain as it should be. Bullfighting anywhere should be illegal. Some will say it is a cultural thing and should be allowed. Nonsense, killing anything for entertainment is wrong and should be stopped.
The same with dog fighting. People breed, train, and then throw dogs into a ring to tear each other up. The way I see dog fighters is that most of the people who actually participate in placing the dogs in the ring, are cowards trying to make up for their own insecurity. I say if you want to be that "bad", jump in a combat ring yourself. There are many human combat rings in the country, some illegal but most legal. These are places where men and women make their own minds up to fight. They are not forced into them as dogfighters do to their animals. Dog fighting is illegal as it should be and we should always support efforts to enforce laws against it.
And finally, the same day I saw the raging bull do what came natural to him, I read that in Afghanistan a young couple were stoned to death for eloping. I read the headline, did a double take, read it again and immediately checked my calendar and confirmed that the year was 2010. For a split second I thought I may have been in the middle ages. Stoned to death for eloping? Well, digging a little deeper I found that the charge was having an affair and eloping. Yes, it seems a female was supposed to marry someone her family told her she must wed. However, even though she was engaged to marry the man, she loved another. She fled the village with the man she loved, who by the way had another wife, but men are allowed to have four wives there. Friends and relatives tricked them back to the village where a religious court promptly sentenced them to death. The sentence was carried out by several hundred villagers and family members.
From the bloodletting of a bull in Spain to the bloodletting of dogs in America to the killing of a young couple in love. Who said we are civilized in 2010? Who says we have evolved and come a long way since the middle ages? Makes you wonder doesn't it? It made me wonder.
What can those of us who are civilized do about these sorts of things? There are things that can be done. Reasonably, through any form of communication, show, explain, and educate others that there is a healthy, wholesome way to live life and senseless bloodletting is unquestionably not a part of the equation.
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More commentsGreat article Steve, thanks for sharing.Thank you David and stay well.Steve
People who promote and enjoy blood sports of any kind, are vestiges of the worlds lower evolved souls.They haven't all been winnowed out yet, but, thank God, they are becoming a minority on earth.They remind me of the people in the ancient Roman Colosseum watching and cheering as the gladiators fought to the death, and the Christians were torn to pieces by wild animals- Thought provoking article Steve- Always- EllaYes Ella the Colosseum--just like it--I thought that too.Thanks for your words.Steve.
They won't let me give you more than 1 high five, I tried! Twice in fact. It is a shame in this century that men still feel a need to obtain their obsession for superiority through the ultimate taking of another's, whether it be animal or man's life. It's appalling, and like you say in many places in the world accepted. Unfortunately, this is a tenet of fundamentalist religion and is precisely why it is so hard to expunge these atrocities from our psyche. Thank you for trying to shed a little light where none exists. Good day.How funny and how complementary that you tried a couple of high fives! Thanks Dave and a great take when you write: "That men still feel a need to obtain their obsession for superiority through the ultimate taking of another's whether it be animal or man's life." I'll remember that! That's a quotable quote.Thanks for writing.Steve
Readers Club
Hi Steve.I can't believe, though I've known for some time, that these things still go on. It's one of the reasons I sometimes think the earth would be better off without human beings living on it.I don't know if this is really true, but to add insult to injury, I've heard that they train the dogs to fight by throwing other dogs into the ring after first cutting their hamstrings so that they can not flee. So that their only option is to stand and do their best not to die. What an insane world we live in.DianneInsane is giving them an excuse--it's worse--it's depravity and total misdirection--leadership whether local, community based, or national can make inroads in peoples crazy behavior. Too many leaders are impotent twits looking for glory! Thanks for writing Dianne.Steve
Hi Steve I am very much against this so called sport. I was once asked (about 5 years ago) by a brother of mine who owned a website called Benidormbeaches to write an article on something to do with Spain. I had "never" wrote an article before, however. I went ahead and would you believe that first article was called "Bullfight Blues" in which I made it clear about my distaste for bullfighting.Thank you for the readKeep wellKacy
Hi Kacy and nice to hear from you,It doesn't get much worse other than doing it to humans. Spain will outlaw it soon (I think) and I hope others will follow. "Bullfight Blues"-- good title--but I guess you always knew how to get people to listen and read!!!--Thanks.Steve
Very interesting article Steve. I totally agree with you about the bullfights, they should be stopped. I went to a bullfight in Mexico totally unaware and I left because I got so sick I couldn't stand it. Thanks for bringing this to the light.Hi Linda,Sorry you had to go through that--lots of folks simply don't know what those "fights" are about. It can only help to get the truth out...thanks...Steve
Great article Steve. I felt the same as I watched the news with the bull rampaging through the stands.Hopefully it was a wake-up call to how this has to stop.And, you are right. 2010 and how far we have come ? NOT!! In so many ways.Thanks Steve for airing this.Thanks anonymous--I appreciate it.Steve
The truth of the matter is essentially we are all a breed of animal (Homosapiens). We all have that savage lust within us. Most of the time we are civilized enough to control that lust but every once in a while we need to release our emotions or we may not be released from the mental institution. Most of us love to watch a good hard hitting football game, martial arts contest, a violent movie, or an obnoxious drunk get kicked out of a bar. Some of us participate in these past times. They are controlled and we wind up with harmless bruises. The contests are harmful when they are not controlled, when innocent animals are harmed needlessly in spite of tradition, or when human lives are taken for stupid reasons. Dog fights via Michael Vick, bullfights via traditions of Spain, stoning a couple to death via stupid laws of ignorant, (some may even be terrorists) villagers are travesties. Maybe a fun sport would be "stone bull dog" fighting. Make the people involved in the fore mentioned activities, go into an arena and fight the bulls, the dogs, and people throwing stones at them,all at the same time.Now this was well written. Great points for the reasoning behind these acts and funny about what we can do with some of em. Hey, you ought to write a book!Thanks Mike,SteveThank-you, Steve. I am almost finished writing my book about autism.
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