Study: An Evaluation of Portugese Societal Opinion Towards the Practice of Bullfighting
Source Evaluation: This study is useful as it offers many statistics, and even more so because it looks into the opinions of Portugese people (as opposed to Spaniards which is what my research so far has primarily focused on). By looking into the opinions and statistics of another country, I will be able to compare and make a more accurate, informed judgement. Portugal is Spains neighbur, so I definitely think it will be useful to see the similarities and differences between the two countries when it comes to bullfighting.
This study is by "Animals Basel" which is an "an international, peer reviewed, open access journal devoted entirely to animals, including zoology and veterinary sciences, published semimonthly online by MDPI"(Animals, 2011, "Animals"). What is interesting and makes it highly reliable is that it is peer reviewed, meaning that the findings of one person have to be checked by multiple people in the same field of work before it can be published. Also, this particular article is from 2020, so it is very recent and even better because it is the most recent year that is unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, "an online questionnaire was used to seek Portuguese citizens’ opinions towards bullfighting and to relate these opinions to certain demographic characteristics", (Diéguez FJ, 2020, Abstract), which is useful as demographics (age and gender and economic status etc) can affect the opinions towards subjects such as this. Because the study is extremely detailed contains a lot of extra information, I have selected the opinions, information and statistics that I believe are the most relevant to me and my research:
- In portugal, the bulls "are not killed in full view of the public", but the bull is still "sent to the slaughter house after the fight." (Diéguez et al, 2020, Animals). While the brutality isn't visible to the spectators, it is evidently still there.
- "Of the coutrys 308 council areas, only 44 have bullfighting activity", (Diéguez et al, 2020, Abstract) which emphasises a minoruty of support.
- "Supporters of bullfighting consider it to be a deeply ingrained and integral part of the national culture and identity" (Diéguez et al, 2020, Animals), which is similar to Spain: those that support it, support it because they view it as an important national tradition.
- "The Portuguese government has recently rejected a bill to ban bullfights that was submitted by PAN, the People-Animals-Nature party," (Diéguez et al, 2020, Animals). This is similar to Spain, whos government has tried to still encourage bullfighting (giving subsidies etc.)
- This following information is particularly interesting: "it seems evident that during wounding and other physical attacks that occur during bullfights, bulls exhibit behaviors indicative of distress including tail swishing, labored breathing, exhaustion, and reluctance to move", (Diéguez et al, 2020, Animals). This consolidates my understanding that bulls are subjected to extreme trauma, and it "clearly violates the minimal animal welfare standards," (Diéguez et al, 2020, Animals).
- "The Portuguese legal system criminalizes violence towards animals, but exceptions to this are granted for bullfights (and other entertainment using bulls)", (Diéguez et al, 2020, Animals).
Table 1 (Animals (Basel). 2020 Nov; 10(11): 2065. , Published online 2020 Nov 7)
Descriptive analysis of the survey respondents and the general population of Portugal (N = 8248 individuals).
| Variable | Studied Population, Frequency (%) | Portugal, % |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||
| Female | 5035 (61.0%) | 53% |
| Male | 3213 (39.0%) | 47% |
| Age | ||
| <28 | 3535 (42.9%) | (<24) * 24.9% |
| 28–37 | 1976 (24.0%) | (25–34) 12.7% |
| 38–47 | 1434 (17.4%) | (35–44) 15.1% |
| 48–57 | 766 (9.3%) | (45–54) 13.5% |
| 58–67 | 404 (4.9%) | (55–65) 12.8% |
| >67 | 133 (1.6%) | (>65) 21.0% |
| Occupation | ||
| Self-employed | 1254 (15.2%) | 11.8% |
| Employed | 3769 (45.7%) | 34.8% |
| Student | 2353 (28.5%) | 19.3% |
| Retired | 341 (4.1%) | 29.1% |
| Unemployed | 531 (6.4%) | 5.0% |
| Occupation other than veterinary medicine | 7901 (95.8%) | >99.9% |
| Occupation veterinary medicine | 345 (4.2%) | <0.1% |
| No response | 2 (0.0%) | |
| Education | ||
| Primary education | 123 (1.5%) | 46.3% |
| Secondary education | 2380 (28.9%) | 28.4% |
| Higher education | 5741 (69.6%) | 25.3% |
| No response | 4 (0.0%) | |
| Net monthly income | ||
| <1060 € | 1566 (19.0%) | 20.0% |
| 1060–1590 € | 1628 (19.7%) | 25.7% |
| 1590–2120 € | 1727 (20.9%) | 21.1% |
| 2120–2650 € | 1343 (16.3%) | 18.1% |
| >2650 € | 1627 (19.7%) | 15.1% |
| No response | 357 (4.3%) | |
| Religion | ||
| Non-practicing/agnostic | 3503 (42.5%) | 40% |
| Catholic | 4067 (49.3%) | 56% |
| Other religions | 678 (8.2%) | 4% |
| Habitat | ||
| Rural | 2069 (25.1%) | 35.3% |
| Urban | 6179 (74.9%) | 64.7% |
I have inserted the table above from the article website https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7695134/ because it is vital that I understand the demographics of the people who contributed to this survey; factors such as gender, income, education and religion have a major impact on peoples world views.
On top of this, I am going to insert more graphs as the statistics are incredibly useful to draw upon to make conclusions and I believe that the results gained compliment eachother with many correlations which I will explain:
Table 3 (Animals (Basel). 2020 Nov; 10(11): 2065. , Published online 2020 Nov 7)
Summary of respondents’ attendance at bullfighting events (N = 8248 individuals).
| Attendance at bullfighting shows | Response | Frequency (%) | Response | Frequency (%) | |
| Never attended | 4332 (52.5%) | ||||
| Had attended but no longer do | 1623 (19.7%) | Due to animal welfare | 1227 (75.6%) | ||
| Loss of interest | 294 (18.1%) | ||||
| Stop liking it | 102 (6.3%) | ||||
| Still attended | 2293 (27.8%) | Starting age | <18 | 2103 (91.7%) | |
| 18–25 | 133 (5.8%) | ||||
| >25 | 57 (2.5%) | ||||
| Reason to attend | Cultural | 1970 (85.9%) | |||
| Religious | 73 (3.2%) | ||||
| Economic | 106 (4.6%) | ||||
| No response | 144 (6.3%) | ||||
| If the bull was replaced by another animal (i.e., dog), would you continue to attend? | Yes | 20 (0.8%) | |||
| No | 2185 (95.3%) | ||||
| No response | 88 (3.9%) | ||||
This information clearly shows that 1227 (75.6% of people) no longer attend bullfights because of the animal warefare worries, which is solidified by 95.3% of people saying that they would not attend if the animal was anything other than a bull. Because of the "tradition" of the sport, people have almost developed a view of bulls that they aren't innocent animals, they are beasts meant for the sport. This is what animal rights groups are evidently trying to make people aware of, and they have clearly been successful as that statistic shows.
Also, out of the people in the study from Portugal, 60% were religious (56% Catholic, 4% other), but only 3.2% of the participants claim to attend bullfights because of religion. The main reason for attending bullfights is cultural: 1970 (85.9% of the people) say this is their main reason for attending.
The study then goes on to show a cluster analysis and then the demographics of these clusters:
Table 5 (Animals (Basel). 2020 Nov; 10(11): 2065. , Published online 2020 Nov 7)
Composition of opinions regarding bullfighting in Portugal as obtained by a two-step cluster analysis.
| Variable | Cluster 1 | Cluster 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Bullfighting favors economy | ||
| Yes | 18.9% | 81.1% |
| No | 99.2% | 0.8% |
| Bullfighting favors tourism | ||
| Yes | 10.5% | 89.5% |
| No | 99.4% | 0.6% |
| Bullfighting favors culture | ||
| Yes | 1.6% | 98.4% |
| No | 99.8% | 0.2% |
| Bullfighting must receive public funds | ||
| Yes | 0.7% | 99.3% |
| No | 96.7% | 3.3% |
| Generates positive connotations for the country | ||
| Yes | 2.4% | 97.6% |
| No | 99.0% | 1.0% |
| Indifferent | 41.8% | 58.2% |
| Has greater, less or equal artistic value than painting | ||
| Painting higher | 95.6% | 4.4% |
| Equal | 14.4% | 85.6% |
| Bullfighting higher | 5.7% | 94.3% |
| Bull suffers during fights | ||
| Yes | 84.1% | 15.9% |
| No | 0.3% | 99.7% |
| Regarding the ability to feel pain of a bull (compared to a dolphin) | ||
| Dolphin higher | 0.3% | 99.7% |
| Equal | 83.9% | 16.1% |
| Bull higher | 44.5% | 55.5% |
| Regarding the ability to feel pain of a bull (compared to a dog) | ||
| Dog higher | 8.0% | 92.0% |
| Equal | 84.4% | 15.6% |
| Bull higher | 40.3% | 59.7% |
| Regarding the ability to feel pain of a bull (compared to a human) | ||
| Human higher | 8.9% | 91.1% |
| Equal | 85.2% | 14.8% |
| Bull higher | 79.4% | 20.6% |
| Relative linked to bullfighting | ||
| Yes | 27.7% | 72.3% |
| No | 80.6% | 19.4% |
| Fighting bull breed would disappear if bullfighting did not exist | ||
| Yes | 13.9% | 86.1% |
| No | 97.7% | 2.3% |
| Bullfighting continuity should be allowed or not | ||
| Yes | 0.7% | 99.3% |
| No, mainly for animal welfare | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| No, for reasons other than animal welfare | 99.9% | 0.1% |
Table 6 (Animals (Basel). 2020 Nov; 10(11): 2065. , Published online 2020 Nov 7)
Within cluster composition of demographic profiles in Portugal within the clusters obtained by a two-step cluster analysis.
| Variable | Cluster 1 | Cluster 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance to bullfighting shows | ||
| Never attended | 98.3% | 1.7% |
| Attended but stopping do it | 97.4% | 2.6%% |
| Attend | 0.6% | 99.4% |
| Gender | ||
| Female | 81.3% | 18.7% |
| Male | 59.0% | 41.0% |
| Age | ||
| <28 | 65.7% | 34.3% |
| 28–37 | 77.7% | 22.3% |
| 38–47 | 81.3% | 18.7% |
| 48–57 | 75.8% | 24.2% |
| 58–67 | 71.2% | 28.8% |
| >67 | 59.6% | 40.4% |
| Occupation | ||
| Self-employed | 74.4% | 25.6% |
| Employed | 74.6% | 25.4% |
| Student | 65.9% | 34.1% |
| Retired | 70.5% | 29.5% |
| Unemployed | 87.6% | 12.4% |
| Professional field is veterinary medicine | 67.0% | 33.0% |
| Professional field different to veterinary medicine | 73.2% | 26.8% |
| Education | ||
| Primary education | 48.0% | 52.0% |
| Secondary education | 67.5% | 32.5% |
| Higher education | 75.9% | 24.1% |
| Net monthly income | ||
| <1060 € | 65.7% | 34.3% |
| 1060–1590 € | 78.6% | 21.4% |
| 1590–2120 € | 76.8% | 23.3% |
| 2120–2650 € | 74.4% | 25.6% |
| >2650 € | 67.7% | 32.3% |
| Religion | ||
| Non-practicing/agnostic | 91.9% | 8.1% |
| Catholic | 53.3% | 46.7% |
| Other religions | 88.5% | 11.5% |
| Habitat | ||
| Rural | 64.5% | 35.5% |
| Urban | 75.9% | 24.1% |
From this, we can see that "Unfavourable views of bullfighting were expressed more commonly by women, amongst those with average income levels, those living in urban areas, and in individuals with higher education levels."(Diéguez et al, 2020, Abstract). This also seems to be mirrored in the statistics of men. Also, the older population tend to think of bullfighting more positively. This could be because they are more concerned with the idea of tradition and customs, unlike younger generations; in this way, bullfighting is losing its way in the modern world.
I wanted to see how many female matadors there are to support the insinuation that women see the phallocentric nature of the sport and lack of female presence, and this is proven in the statistic that: "In 2015, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport had a list of 825 Spanish bullfighters, of which only five were women. In spite of this, some women have fought their way to the top, literally, and have become Spain’s elite female bullfighters."
Overall, I believe these statistics and Tables will be very useful to refer to and embed into my dissertation, and enable me to compare to the statistics of Spain.
References:
MDPI, 2011, animals , Basel, Switzerland, accessed 3rd Feb 2022
Diéguez FJ, Zau Y, Viegas I, Fragoso S, Turner PV, da Graça-Pereira G, An Evaluation of Portuguese Societal Opinion towards the Practice of Bullfighting, Animals, (Basel),PMC7695134 , Switzerland, Published 2020 Nov 7, accessed 3rd Feb 2022
Comunidad de Madrid, https://madridbullfighting.com/blog/female-bullfighter/, accessed 12/4/22
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