Is All Animal Suffering Equal?

Too cruel? A bull and Spanish bullfighter in the Santamaria plaza.
(Photo: Fernando Vergara)

The Colombian government has proposed a law prohibiting bullfighting and related activities in Colombia. That would be a big blow to bullfighters and aficionados, since Colombia is the third-biggest bullfighting country, after Spain and Mexico.

But bullfighting is a throwback to an era of bloodsports such as bear baiting, and many sociologists believe that violent entertainments like these promote a more violent society. The proposed law says its goal is to 'strengthen cultural citizenship for peace, respect for life and integrity of sentient beings, by eliminating bullfighting as an expression of violence and cruelty.'

A bird stands over a defeated foe in an
illegal cockfight in the United States.

Good for them. But I've never understood why animal rights advocates stop at bullfighting. What about cockfighting, which involves killing many more animals, in a more brutal fashion. And how about the many thousands of animals killed in slaughterhouses? Does anybody have an idea about how they live and die?

(Bullfighting-related violence goes beyond that between bullfighter and bull. This year bullfighting returned to Bogotá after five years, igniting huge, violent protests. The last Sunday of bullfighting, a bomb exploded on the sidewalk above the plaza, killing two police officers and injuring some 20 people. The government blamed the ELN guerrillas.)

A young man confronts police during anti-bullfighting protests early this year. 

Young men wrestle a small bull in a corraleja.
(Photo: Vice)

The law's sponsor, interior minister Juan Fernando Cristo, also says that bullfighting "gravely damages children...by increasing aggressiveness, anxiety and emotional impacts."

But if that is the law's authors' concern, then why don't they just prohibit children from attending bullfights? And how about protecting kids from all the violence in movies, television and video games?

Bullfighting gets picked on because it's conspicuous and associated with the wealthy and the landowning class. But of the various ways in which Colombians mistreat animals, it seems like one of the most minor. Banning bullfighting may very well be a good thing, but it's only a first step in protecting animals from abuse.

An afterthought: Bogotá's La Santamaria Plaza is a handsome building, located in the center of the city, with seating capacity for more than 30,000 people. Whether bullfighting returns to there or not, the building should be used for other events, such as concerts, art exhibitions and the like. Instead, it's sat empty for the past years.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Protesting Bullfighting...As Always

Scenes from today's anti-bullfighting march, to which a group of anti-frackers united themselves.

Mayor Petro, a bullfighting opponent, had wanted to include a referendum on bullfighting in the upcoming Oct. 25 municipal elections, but a judge nixed the idea. The mayor appealed, so perhaps the protesters are still hoping against hope that the referendum goes forward.

As always, I'd like to ask the bullfighting protesters why they focus solely on this, which affects only a few dozen animals, but ignore the much more widespread cockfighting, not to mention factory farming, which mistreats innumerable animals (and probably people's health) every single day.

Mayor Petro, who's term is almost over, has not allowed bullfighting here since 2012. The Santa Maria is now closed for renovation.

The Colombian government has enthusiastically embraced fracking, altho it may not be economically viable here.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Latest Bullfighting Round

Posters announce the 'Anti-bullfighting referendum.'

A performer dressed as a bull at an
anti-bullfighting demonstration.

Mayor Petro's anti-bullfighting crusade may have received a fatal stabbing from the Concejo de Estado, which ruled today that Petro's planned referendum on the issue was illegal, because the city doesn't have the authority to decide on such a traditional practice.

Petro hasn't allowed bullfighting in the historic Plaza Santamaria since Feb. 2012, and with or without a referendum fights aren't likely to return soon, since Petro has scheduled renovation work there.

Young bullfighters practice in the Santamaria Stadium.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bullfighting's Back?

They won. Hunger striking bullfighters in front of the Santamaria Plaza last year.

Brace yourself for the protests.

Coming soon: Anti-bullfighting protesters
march thru downtown Bogotá.

The Constitutional Court ruled today that Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro must reopen the Santamaria Bullfighting Plaza to bullfights, ending a long court battle.

A court had previously ruled that bullfighting is traditional in Bogotá, and the mayor lacked authority to ban it. He appealed, and the high court ruled against him.

For Petro, this is political disaster. Animal rights advocates have been among his most vocal backers, and this court ruling nullifies one of his few concrete accomplishments.

The Santamaria's empty arena. 

But Petro still has cards to play. It's probably too late to organize bullfights for the 2015 season, which normally runs from early January thru late February. And Petro claims that the 80-plus-year-old Santamaria Plaza needs a major renovation. The renovation project's contracting process keeps getting suspended for lack of interested companies, but expect Petro to rush it thru now to create another justification for keeping the plaza shut. The city's recreation agency has already closed the handsome plaza to tourists, for unfathomable reasons. Bullfighting advocates suspect that the real motive behind the renovation plans is to make the plaza unusable for its original purpose, bullfighting.

Setting aside bullfighting's artistic merits, or lack of them, it's always seemed to me that la fiesta brava gets picked on unfairly among the wide range of animal abuses permitted in Colombia. A few dozen bulls fight and die during a normal season in La Santamaria, but innumerable roosters suffer and die in the city's legal cockfighting pits, while nobody says a word. And, recently, I talked to a Spaniard setting up industrial pig and chicken farms here. The man told me that Colombia has no animal welfare laws. They do in Europe, he admitted "because they're crazy" there.

Evidently, Colombia's a very sane nation, since nobody lifts a finger to improve the conditions of farm animals.

Young bullfighters show their moves in front of the Santamaria Plaza.

The historic Santamaria Plaza during a pro-bullfighting demonstration.

Does anybody care? Animals packed together on industrial farms.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

On the March Again Against Bullfighting

'Animals are our brothers, not our slaves.'

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people marched down Ave. Septima today protesting against bullfighting.

Bullfighting, La Fiesta Brava, has been in the news recently because of a legal battle over whether or not the practice can take place in Bogotá's Santa Maria Plaza. Mayor Petro has not allowed bullfighting there for the last two years, but a court ruled a few weeks ago that the mayor lacked the authority to prohibit the practice. The mayor has appealed the ruling.

Meanwhile, a group of young bullfighters are carrying out a hunger strike in front of the plaza, demanding that it be reopened to bullfights. 

This demonstration received attention because of an anti-bullfighting flyer which appeared to threaten the lives of the striking bullfighters. 

I'm always struck by the way the animal rights activists protest only bullfighting, while ignoring practices such as cockfighting and factory farming, which seem to me to be much crueler and affect many more animals.

'Animals are from God. Bestiality is human.'

'Animals are not ours for experimenting, eating, wearing or for entertainment.'

Dogs against bullfighting.

'If bullfighting is art, then stabbing is culture.'

'Loving animals makes us better people.'

'Torture, not art or culture.'

The bullfighting plaza was protected by a line of barricades, and police as well.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Animal Rights: A One-Bull Show?

'End of the animalist bench in the Bogotá City Council.' (Image: Semana.com)

Bogotá's animal rights activists have lost two battles recently: A court ruled that the Mayor Petro lacked the authority to prohibit bullfighting, and then the City Council voted down a proposal to remove the term 'bullfighting' from the Santamaria Plaza's official list of uses.

Now, the City Council's 'Animalista' benchers feel impotent and frustrated, as well as divided internally. (Several animalista councilmembers actually voted against the proposed plaza name change. They explained that the court ruling obliged them to do so.)

The animalistas seem to be a small interest group. But they are loud and likely the council's most altruistic members. They chalked up one major victory a year ago when the city finally retired the cart-pulling horses from the streets. Mayor Petro also won their gratitude by not allowing bullfighting for the past two years in the historic Santamaria Plaza. However, this year, while a group of young bullfighters staged a hunger strike in front of the plaza, a court gave the mayor six months to allow bullfighting again.

Petro, who had vowed to resign before allowing bullfighting again, agreed to obey the judge's order.

Those losses seem to have taken the winds out of the animalistas' sails and left them fighting amongst themselves - which makes no sense to me. Other groups mobilize themselves in the face of challenges. And, there are many other - and much more important - animal welfare issues to fight for.

Cruel entertainment. Two roosters in a death struggle.

What about cockfighting, which is legal and goes on in Bogotá? I've been to cockfights, and they're
horrific, lacking any of even the 'art' of bullfighting. A bunch of drunk, yelling guys crowd around a ring in which two roosters slash each other to death with razors their trainers have attached to the birds' ankles. As the evening winds up, a pile of dead birds accumulates beside the ring.

Pigs crowded into a cage on a
factory farm.

And how about factory farming? The countless animals which live and die in factory farms and slaughterhouses make the few dozen bulls killed during a bullfighting season almost insignificant. And, in contrast to the crowded, dirty conditions in a factory farm, fighting bulls live well, and for much longer than animals raised for milk or meat, before they're brought to the bullfighting plaza.

I've seen virtually no attention paid to the conditions of life and death for animals raised for milk and meat in Colombia.

And the illegal trade in wild animals? This gets some attention, but not much.

And there are undoubtedly lots more animal welfare issues of much more importance than bullfighting for the animalists to worry about.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Fight Over Bullfighting Gets Loud

Anti-bullfighting protesters yelling across the street from the Supreme Court on Ave. Septima. I didn't get a chance to ask them whether they are also in favor of humane treatment of animals raised for meat.

With young bullfighters, or novilleros, on hunger strike in favor of the fiesta brava in front of the bullfighting stadium and a court predicted to rule in favor of continued bullfights in Bogotá, bullfighting's opponents have turned out.

'Danger: Murderers Working' A new mural near the bullfighting plaza.

An anti-bullfighting bull. Bullfighting bulls, which are a special breed, simply would not exist if not for bullfighting.

A sign outside the bullfighting stadium urges support for the novice bullfighters.

Inside the bullfighting plaza, a supporter of the fiesta brava wrote ¡OLÉ! on Cesar Rincon's cape.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Zorreros: Trotting Off Into History?

A horse cart trots thru Bogotá's Santa Fe neighborhood on a recent afternoon.

Bogotá's horsecarts, long a surprising sight on the capital's streets, were supposed to be gone by now. But hundreds or more remain, trotting about, vending things or carrying loads to dispose of or recycle.

Animal rights activists led the campaign to ban the carts, which were supposed to be gone by Oct. 1. By early August only about 1,000 of the 4,000 or so horses had been turned in. And a brief visit a poor, industrial neighborhood such as Los Martyres shows that many zorreros are still holding out.

The cart drivers, known as zorreros, are supposed to turn in their horses in return for a compensation intended to allow them to buy a small truck or open a small business. But many of the zorreros, who are overhwhelmingly uneducated and unsophisticated, may not be able to handle that wealth.

"We believe that many of the horsecart people won't have those trucks after a few weeks," a leader of Bogotá's recyclers told me.

The payments are so generous that Bogotá authorities even suspect that people from outside the city have brought in horses to trade for the compensation.

A horsecart and bike tourists near Bogotá's Paloquemao market.

It certainly is true that many of the cart drivers abuse, underfed and overwork their animals. In fact, many of the horses turned in to the city suffer from intestinal parasites and other ills which require veterinary attention. (Animal welfare groups are recruiting adoptive families for the animal retirees.) But other horsecart drivers value and love their animals.

And those cart drivers, who often have few skills, will struggle to survive without those animals. One leader of Bogotá's recyclers recently said that some have been forced into prostitution to feed their families.

And, for me, the horsecarts give Bogotá a different atmosphere, saying 'this isn't just another big city.'

Their disappearance - if it happens - will remove a piece of Bogotá's uniqueness and character.

And, does Bogotá really need more gas guzzling, polluting vehicles?

A horsecart amidst motor traffic. 

A group of mares, some of them retired zorrero horses, are rehabilitated on the campus of the National University while awaiting adoption.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours