It is estimated that worldwide more than 250,000 bulls, cows and calves are abused during the various versions of bullfights and similar events every year.
More than 30,000 confused, maimed, psychologically tormented and physically debilitated bulls, are tortured every year, in the most famous version of bullfighting, the Spanish one.

Preparations for The Torture Performance

Before the bulls are forced into the bullring they are being branded with red-hot irons, and metallic tags are pierced through their ears.
In order to weaken the bulls, they are fed only straw. This deficiency in necessary dietary components leads to muscular feebleness. And it is only one of the ways to weaken the bull before the “fight”.
In order to provoke the bulls’ aggression, they are regularly being chased and hassled in the farm where they are held. Heavy weights are hung around the bulls’ necks for weeks before the fight, in order to weaken them. The bulls suffer beatings to the kidneys.
Humans also spike the bull at the top end of his tail, which produces a very painful and distressing sensation causing him to lose balance and fall backwards.

One common practice is to "shave" the bulls’ horns by sawing off a few inches. Bull’s horns, like cat’s whisker, help them navigate, so a sudden change impairs the bull’s coordination.

The bulls may also be given a cocktail of drugs such as stimulators to produce more aggression in the ring, and uppers or downers to cause them confusion and disorientation. And as if all this is not enough, petroleum jelly is rubbed into their eyes to blur their vision before the fight. All this pain and suffering is inflicted on the bulls before they are even forced into the arena.

The Torture Performance

Hours before the torture performance begins, the bull is confined in a box so that he cannot see daylight and he can hardly move. So when the doors of the bullring open, the bull rushes forward, only to find himself in the bullring bewildered, drugged, surrounded by merciless crowd of humans who are calling out for his death and cheering for the torturers.

Picadors

In the arena, a group of humans in fancy dress begin to attack the bull.
They exhaust and frustrate him by causing him to run in circles and tricking him until he falls. When the bull is tired and out of breath, he is approached by the picadors. Picadors are men on blindfolded horses, who use lances to stab the bulls in their back and neck muscles. This impairs the bull's ability to lift his head. They twist and spin the lances to ensure a significant amount of blood loss.

Horses used in bullfighting are drugged and blindfolded. They often have wet newspaper stuffed in their ears to impair their hearing, and their vocal cords are usually cut so that their cries do not "distract" the crowd. A horse may be heavily padded in the ring, but the bull can still throw the horse to the ground and gore him.

Banderillas

The bull's torment has not ended yet. After the lances come the banderillas, which are harpoons decorated with colored bunting. The banderillas are being stubbed into the bull’s back. With every move the wounds get bigger and bigger.

The Murderer

The bull is exhausted.
Now the matador enters the ring and prances around waving his cape "preparing" the poor animal for his murder.
The bull might be lucky and be killed straight away with one thrust of the meter-long sword to his heart… Or it may take several strikes, and the bull may die from perforated lungs.

Trophies

Parts of the bull are cut off with a knife while he is still conscious. He is paralyzed and breathing his last breaths, prone, helpless, suffering. The gory trophies are one or both ears, and sometimes the tail.

The Catalonian Ban

We wish we could only say that it is a small scale and regional change, in a very small and disputable industry, and that it came to action only in 2012 and after decades of intensive international campaigns - 2 factors which say something very pessimistic about the chances for a real change in our speciesist society. But we can’t even say that, since even this relatively small ban wasn’t made out of compassion for the bulls but for political reasons of the Catalans, who aspire to segregate from the rest of Spain.
If moral reasons were on the minds of the decision makers, the rest of the bulls and other animals torturing spectacles called Correbous, which are very popular in Catalonia, would have been banned as well. And not only that they were not banned, but they have been regulated and shielded to be lawfully protected for good. Only 2 months after bullfighting was banned. 208 torturing spectacles in 28 different municipalities were authorized in Catalonia.

And as of October 2016 even this bullfighting ban was repealed, as Spain’s Constitutional Court overturned the ban for being unconstitutional. The formal excuse is that bullfights are part of ‘Spanish cultural heritage’ and thus outlawing them can only be legislated by the central government.