The heated controversy over the advisability or not of bullfights behind closed doors, which arose as a result of the publication by the newspaper a few days ago of Movistar TV's intention to celebrate them in the autumn, has increased in intensity when the government's plan for the de-escalated call. From June 8 bullfighting celebrations can be held, but with a limited capacity so that one person is guaranteed for every nine square meters.
This is the harshest and most demanding condition that Health imposes on a public spectacle, and, clearly, prevents the normal celebration of celebrations due to the economic impossibility of maintaining them. It seems that this measure in fact assumes that the seats could only be occupied in 10 percent of their capacity, so that Las Ventas, for example, could only accommodate around 2,000 spectators.
Of course, this is the norm for the third phase of the de-escalation, and as the Fundación del Toro de Lidia has pointed out, "it remains to be seen what the final situation will be for bullfighting once all the transition phases are over." "Much remains to be done," he adds, "and see how they can be made economically viable by reducing capacity."
Be that as it may, it seems clear that this year there will be no normal runs and those that are held will be subject to iron conditions of limitation of capacity (the first condition of Health gives an idea of those that will come later) that will seriously jeopardize their viability.
Brave bull ranchers do not breed meat, but behaviors
At this point, the controversy continues: does it make sense to hold a bullfight without an audience or with 500 people on the lines, or is it preferable to send the bulls to the slaughterhouse and wait for better times?
In theory, a celebration behind closed doors, and with television, has no reason to exist. Victorino Martín affirms that "bullfighting is a magic triangle between bull, bullfighter and public", and those words have no turning point.
The lines are not only the financial support of the party; the fans and, failing that, the public are the fuel of the show.
A crowded plaza is more than just a grand jury with an awakened mind and a heart ready for emotion, debate, disappointment, passion ...
A crowded plaza is the fluid that gives meaning to the show, the breath that pushes the bullfighter towards the achievement of the dream, the spirit for the rancher who resists in the alley, the joy or the suffering before a show as surprising and ephemeral as beautiful and explosive when bull and bullfighter draw a mysterious indefinable and inexplicable composition.
In conclusion, a run with empty seats does not make any sense.
Therefore, when it was learned that Movistar TV had proposed to ANOET -the association of great bullfighting entrepreneurs- and the Fundación del Toro de Lidia the celebration of closed-door and television celebrations, there were many voices that cried out against what they consider heresy, an insult, madness, nonsense.
Even, there were those who accused Movistar of having no other purpose than to make cash and stop the flight of subscribers, as if such endeavor was a sin in a private company; the only one, by the way, that has a specific channel for bulls. Movistar does well, of course, in seeking solutions to its bullfighting 'crisis', which is not mild.
A brave bull cannot, must not, die in a slaughterhouse
But the matter does not end here. Something should also be said about the bull, the main protagonist of this story. And we should listen to the ranchers, their breeders, sufferers and those responsible for animal behavior that allows bullfighting to exist.
Because the only and certain conclusion of all the previous argument is that if bullfights without public are not organized, and the prohibition of massive concentrations of people throughout the year remains, the only viable solution for many farms is the slaughterhouse.
But brave bull ranchers do not breed meat, but behaviors. They are self-taught in genetics; trackers of bravery, nobility, caste, race, mobility, fierceness ...
Is it reasonable, acceptable, and common sense for a brave bull to end up in the slaughterhouse?
"Riding a bull in a truck to take it to the slaughterhouse is devastating," said Carlos Núñez, president of the Lidia Union of Bull Breeders (UCTL).
"The brave bull was born to die fighting in the plaza," says Victorino.
Santiago Domecq commented in his Twitter account the following: “The young of the brave bull loses all its essence when the bull does not jump into the ring. No one breeds a brave bull for its beauty alone; That is one more incentive that joins the end for which he grows up: fighting for his life in the ring. For the slaughterhouse there are cattle that are more profitable ”.
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The breeder from La Palmosilla, Javier Núñez, joined the clamor on the same social network and, along with some photos of his bulls chosen for La Maestranza, said: “Tomorrow first thing these bulls would have to be shipped for recognition and later Fights on Sunday (April 19) in Seville. Unfortunately, its glorious fate may be the cold, aseptic room of an industrial slaughterhouse. What a sad death for such a beautiful animal! ”
In addition, if there are no celebrations, the breeders will not be able to verify their successes and errors in the selection of cows and stallions; the bull will not pass the final exam in the plaza, the best tentadero possible, the one that decides the course of a livestock.
In case more arguments were necessary, the saddest is enough: the trucks loaded with brave bulls are already queuing at the entrance to the industrial slaughterhouses.
And now that? What is the biggest nonsense? A bullfight behind closed doors or a brave bull propped up in a cold and dingy corridor?
A brave bull cannot, must not, die in a slaughterhouse.
The bullfighting festival suffers - like the whole country - a desperate situation and, in such a circumstance, all ideas are welcome, however crazy they may seem, to offer a minimum of dignity to the essential protagonist of the festival.
If closed-door bullfights allow a handful of brave bulls to die in the ring with due glory, let them be held; although it may seem, and perhaps it is, an eccentricity.
What does it matter if ears are granted or not, if the bullfighter deserves applause or silence ... The important thing is to give dignity to the bull.
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