Colombia's congress votes to ban bullfights, dealing a blow to the centuries-old tradition
BY MANUEL RUEDA
Updated 1:40 AM CDT, May 29, 2024
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s congress voted Tuesday to ban bullfights in the South American nation, delivering a serious blow to a centuries-old tradition that has inspired famous songs and novels but has become increasingly controversial in the countries where it is still practiced.
The bill calls for the banning of bullfights in a three-year span, making the tradition illegal by the start of 2028. The new law now needs to be signed by President Gustavo Petro, who has been a longtime opponent of these events.
Bullfighting originated in the Iberian Peninsula and is still legal in a handful of countries, including Spain, France, Portugal, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico.
It was once a popular event, broadcast live by multiple television networks. But the tradition has come under increased scrutiny as views change about animal welfare, and many find it unacceptable to see an animal suffer for entertainment’s sake.
More:
https://apnews.com/article/colombia-bullfights-ban-congress-b724b6b27cebceab8b8b3d42b4d6c2a5
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From Wikipedia, references to a time when people didn't salivate at the thought of torturing bewildered, frightened, confused animals:
Bull-leaping (Ancient Greek: ταυροκαθάψια, taurokathapsia[1]) is a term for various types of non-violent bull fighting. Some are based on an ancient ritual from the Minoan civilization involving an acrobat leaping over the back of a charging bull (or cow). As a sport it survives in modern France, usually with cows rather than bulls, as course landaise; in Spain, with bu ls, as recortes and in Tamil Nadu, India with bulls as Jallikattu.
Ritual leaping over bulls is a motif in Middle Bronze Age figurative art, especially in Minoan art, and what are probably Minoan objects found in Mycenaean Greece, but it is also sometimes found in Hittite Anatolia, the Levant, Bactria and the Indus Valley.[2] It is often interpreted as a depiction of a rite performed in connection with bull worship.
. . .
Minoan Crete
Bull-leaping is thought to have been a key rieetual in the religion of the Minoan civilization in Bronze Age Crete. As in the case of other Mediterranean civilizations, the bull was the subject of veneration and worship. Representation of the Bull at the palace of Knossos is a widespread symbol in the art and decoration of this archaeological site.[4]
The assumption, widely debated by scholars, is that the iconography represents a ritual sport and/or performance in which human athletes—both male and female[5]—literally vaulted over bulls as part of a ceremonial rite. This ritual is hypothesized to have consisted of an acrobatic leap over a bull, such that when the leaper grasped the bull's horns, the bull would violently jerk its neck upwards, giving the leaper the momentum necessary to perform somersaults and other acrobatic tricks or stunts.[citation needed]
Barbara Olsen, associate professor of Greek and Roman Studies at Vassar College, adds that the sport was probably not especially dangerous for participants. "From the images it looks like they [leaped over the bulls] successfully—the Minoans tend not to give us too much violent imagery, so the bull-leaping usually ends pretty well,"[5] but the goring scene on the "boxer's rhyton" found in Hagia Triada suggests that injuries were not unknown.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull-leaping#Contemporary_bull-leaping
= new reply since forum marked as read
Mexico had banned it several years back, and I just saw it in the news the people had voted to put it all back again in the last year or so.
Huge step backwards.
Worst kind possible kind of regression, inflicting suffering upon other beings. The worst.
Thank goodness the evil lesson didn't take with you!
Thanks for posting. 