Bull

[lozzyloz]

I went to Birmingham once and I didn't have the stomach for that either.

[SteveT]

foamyob = f%$ck off and mind your own business

at least, I think that's what it means Brendan.

[Brendan]

ahh. I thought is was some kind of reference to Brits abroad having foam parties on their beaches.

[Narnia]

Thank you all for your 'input' on the subject! I don't like bullfighting but I would like to grasp what it is about it that makes it alright for some people. I suppose I should ask my other half who is from Sevilla! As most of you probably eat meat and I don't you might like to reflect on how it gets onto your plate. I spent a summer in my youth working in a slaughterhouse where I would see the animals come in, be shot, strung up, throats slit and eventually cut up in pieces. One arguement I've heard in Spain is that these bulls have the life of Reilly until their number is up as they are bred to fight. Either way they will end up on a table being eaten but the bullfighting bulls at least have had a special existance. It still doesn't answer my question as to why people find it entertaining in the same way a hunt in this country is entertaining. What's fun about a pack of dogs chasing a fox? I know it's been banned but I don't believe it has really stopped. It's ironic that if you walk around India, in my case just Delhi, cows have the freedom of the city. They are sacred. I wonder what my son makes of it?

[david_carnell]

In relation to hunting, Declan, I would imagine (and any members of a hunt can feel free to correct me) that the enjoyment is all in the chase. It is unlikely more than one or two members would even get to see the fox killed since, over the course of a ride, the hunt gets spread out.

I don't think it takes much imagination to understand the thrill of riding at high speed o'er hill and down dale, leaping hedges and whatnot, whilst getting to play dress-up for a day and get a bit squiffy at the end of it. Merely it is the end result that some folk find distasteful, namely the killing of a fox. That, and a bit of class warfare for good measure. And who doesn't like annoying braying toffs?

I can see parallels with bull fighting - and not just in the silly outfits. It's a cultural tradition (no doubt passed from fathers to sons in some instances) that rallies communities. Over a million people marched into London because of that sense of unity.

Vegetarianism is a whole different thread methinks....

[cdonline]

I just see it as something particular to the Spanish culture. Viewing it from the outside, it seems rather absurd.

The whole machismo mixed in with camp costumes that would make a Strictly Come Dancing clothes designer blush. Seems a bit of a We're Off to Sunny Spain mularky. Ol?.

[citizenED]

Mockney, just for information, like, how do you pronounce that matador chap's surname?

[SimonM]

>>I went to Birmingham once and I didn't have the stomach for that either.<<

Yeah the Bullring there made me queasy too.

But, returning on-topic, even Hemingway as a self-confessed fan said he could not find what happened to the horses sometimes during a bullfight remotely defensible. And apparently for many years now the bulls have had their horns filed down a bit which totally wrecks their sense of perspective and tips the balance even further in favour of the sequinned be-socked ones...

It's not for me, and neither was fox hunting: and I'd not have banned that either.

[mockney piers]

It may have been different in Hemmingway's day, but these days the horses are cloaked in thick padded armour, and i'd be surprised if any got hurt any more.

Citizen, it's pronounced pon (to rhyme with con) th (hard th like throw) e to (with the e pronounced as that in pet). Accent on the o.

In the Americas and some parts of southern Spain the th will be a hard s as in see

[Keef]

I'm not at all keen on it, especially when animals are doped, at least give them a fair chance!

Imagine being confused with hundreds or thousands of shouting people all around you, can't be a very nice finale to life, it's a public execution for the sake of entertainment.

Don't think I'd ever go, but pretty sure I'd be cheering the bull if I ever did!