Animal Rights group: World Animal Protection

 I wanted to look into some specific animal rights groups today: I think this is useful because I will be able to specifically name them and use them as examples in my argument as to whether bullfighting should be banned or not. I chose to look into the World Animal Protection page, https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/campaigns/animals-wild/bullfighting as they are currently campaigning to stop the sport. Their viewpoint is obviously that bullfighting should be stopped, but I will look into the reasoning for this and also the ways they propose to do this (if they give any). 

This organisation seems efficient and official, as it is a charitable organisation asking people for donations. One thing that they highlight on their “Our Guide to Friendly Travel”, (Our Guide to Friendly Travel, World Animal Protection, 2022) page states that “animal cruelty can be a bi product of tourism”, and that we should not “accept culture as an excuse for cruelty”. (World Animal Protection, 2022). Their views are primarily concerned with the ethics behind the way animals and tourism have become inter related (not just bullfighting, but also zoos and other exploitative attitudes towards animals).

Furthermore, they have a page dedicated to bullfighting (which in itself expresses their wish that the cruel sport would end): within this, there are multiple headings and reasonings given to try and make the public aware of the blood sport.  They say that the problem is that “ Surrounded by a watching crowd, men armed with spears, swords and daggers attack a terrified bull, weakening it by causing intense pain and blood loss,” (World Animal Protection, 2022), and later on the bull is killed. This just reiterates the brutality of the sport that I am already very aware of, even further highlighting the sickening way an innocent, terrified animal is tortured. Furthermore “around 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights and festivals per year”, (World Animal Protection, 2022). It definitely seems like a lot of needless violence and death. 

They claim that matadors “ only ever fight a weakened animal. In most cases, for the matadors to be victorious, they have to brutally kill the bull,” (World Animal Protection, 2022) which exposes the way bullfights can often be rigged so that the bull is already subdued and weakened before the fight. If this is true, then how can it even be called a sport when there is no competition? It is just murder.

They record that "Thanks to the pressure of our supporters and other animal groups, on 28 July 2010 the Catalonian parliament voted to ban bullfighting. This ban came into effect on 1 January 2012."(World Animal Protection, 2022). This supports my earlier comments (from previous posts) on how Catalonia has banned bullfighting, different to Spain who are still encouraging it. 

Also, the organisation are working to prevent the sport from being protected by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organisation), which would mean "the tradition would be protected by law as 'cultural heritage'" (World Animal Protection, 2022). If the sport did become protected by UNESCO, the consequences would be detrimental for bulls. 

Source Evaluation: This source was useful for gaining an insight into the views of animal rights groups and is reliable because it is first hand information from their own pages. The morality behind bullfighting is important to this debate, and I think that this source has given me an insight into this. 

(Our Guide to Friendly Travel, World Animal Protection, https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/protect-animals/our-guide-to-animal-friendly-travel accessed 8th Feb 2022) 

(World Animal Protection, https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/campaigns/animals-wild/bullfighting , accessed 8th Feb 2022)


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