Posted on 04/04/2026 2:57:02 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A retired matador was killed by a bull on Friday as he prepared the animals for a bullfight at an arena in Málaga, in southern Spain, organizers said.
Ricardo Ortiz was handling the bulls in their enclosures at La Malagueta, a historic bullring in Málaga, when one of the animals gored him, according to Lances de Futuro, the company organizing the bullfight.
“We want to convey our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased, a much loved and respected person in the bullfighting world,” the company statement said.
Ortiz’s death came a day before a Picasso-themed bullfight, during which three bullfighters will face six bulls, is scheduled to take place at the arena.
Ortiz, born in Málaga in 1974, was from a family of bullfighters and had a successful career of his own, Spanish newspaper El País reported.
Bullfighting and bullrunning, both of which are emblematic of stereotypical Spanish culture, have become increasingly controversial in recent years, caught in the crosshairs of a culture war and condemned by animal rights activist groups.
Between 2010 and 2023, the number of bullfighting festivals in Spain dropped by a third, according to Reuters.
Elsewhere across the world too, the practice is declining. Colombia passed a bill in 2024 banning bullfighting there by 2027, after which only seven countries around the world will host bullfights. And Mexico City overhauled the tradition last year, after its local congress passed a measure to make bullfights less harmful to both bulls and matadors by banning the use of spades and swords to attack the animals.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
I like to go to bull fights on acid.
mmmm there must have been bad blood between those two.
“Karma ;)’’ Yeah. Isn’t this the height of irony?
The Maverick and the Matador were travesties of great proportions and neither were worthy of their names.
He should have tried auto racing or mountain climbing instead.
We got him last spring as a calf. We put him on pasture with 12 Heifers which are young female milk cows that haven’t been bred yet.
He was in Hog Heaven all Spring, Summer & Fall as they doted on him as if he were their calf. Maternal Instinct. There was a bad thunderstorm that came through and as I watched from afar they put Stew in the MIDDLE of themselves to keep him safe. It was very sweet.
When Winter came and he had to be moved to the barn to go on oats and hay, the first thing he did as soon as he could was to jump the fence and go looking for his ‘Moms,’ LOL! He was all the way to the neighbors, who owned those Heifers, when we got the call. :) He jumped quite a number of fence lines!
Yeah, he’s had a VERY pampered life for a steer! I really feel for those poor animals raised on a cement feed lot. :(
“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
Ernest Hemingway
Had a neighbor (Their summer home was next to us) Had a ‘pet bison’- Well that pet bison gored him one day in the stomach- He survived it- sort of- but months later got an infection where he was gored, and died from that-
Wild animals can be tame acting... UNTIL they aren’t
Flash forward to the 1980's, I was on vacation in Acapulco with my family and made the grave error of going to an arena to watch bull fights.
I lasted only 10 minutes before I had to get out of there, and I'm not ashamed to say there were tears in my eyes.......
They're not fights, they're slow, systematic torture of one of God's creatures........They should be banned globally!
And skinny-skiing….
As a hunter I've always been curious about the mechanics of how it was done, and the written descriptions just didn't cut it for me. When I lived in the desert southwest I tried to catch a 'real' old-school bullfight in Mexico but those were pre-internet days and I could never work out the when and where.
Just a few years ago I came across a 1965 film titled (in English) "The Moment of Truth" that satisfied my curiosities. It has several bullfights in it, including "the moment of truth." And since it's 1965, there's no special effects. The blood and the death are all real (except when the protagonist gets gored).
If anyone is interested ....
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059459/
Ernest Hemingway was a pretty good writer and story teller; but he was full of himself.
If only it were one sword and an instant kill. But it's not.
It's multiple swords impaling the bull until it can no longer hold its head up then the fighter finally impales the heart, killing.
It's slow, barbarian torture, pure and simple......and it has no place in a civilized society .....
Yep! We also have an old Mule who is a pony-tail puller if you haven’t given him his fill of carrots on any given day.
A few winters ago I was getting him water and slipped and fell inside of his paddock. As I’m lying on the frozen earth I’m thinking, ‘Well, I guess this is the way it ends for me’ as I was waiting for him to stomp me to death...
Buy, he must’ve gotten enough carrots that day so he let me live to FURTHER SERVE HIM, LOL!

Paybacks a B-word
Is the bull or matador on acid? Or both?
I’ve traveled all over the world but not to Spain because Spaniards support that cruel excuse for a sport. Don’t eat beef or pork either.
Matador photo....
Even putting wings on it and flying in The Man With the Golden Gun couldn’t save it. With Britt Eklund in the trunk.
“The 1974-78 Matador coupe was an “expensive flop” that cost an estimated $40 million, yet it failed to achieve the 80,000+ annual unit sales required to amortize tooling costs.
Often described as having an “ugly” front end or a “protruding snout,” the design did not appeal to the mainstream market of the 1970s.
After a peak of around 62,000–62,629 units in its 1974 launch year, sales plummeted to 30,847 by 1977 and only 2,006 units in 1978, the final year.
—Indie Auto and Wikipedia.
“Say what you want, but sticking a sword between a bulls shoulders to drop him at your feet is a bad ass move. It’s a high level of skill and guts”
Sure, after you have exhausted and nearly bleed out the Bull by sticking multiple banderillas into the animal before the final kill. Sick 3rd world “Sport” Clown on.
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