Free Republic

MEXICO CITY – Some 250 members of the AnimaNaturalis animal rights group staged a protest half-naked and covered with fake blood against bullfighting and to demand the prohibition of the practice in Mexico on the esplanade of Mexico City’s Fine Arts Palace. “Youths from all the states of Mexico, half-naked, covered with blood and with ‘banderillas’ sticking in them showed (on Saturday) with this demonstration the suffering that the bulls are subjected to in the bullfights,” Leonora Esquivel, one of the leaders of the organization in Mexico, said on Saturday. The “banderillas” are the long barbed darts bullfighters stick into...

At least 80 people were injured during a bullfight in Colombia when stands in an overcrowded stadium collapsed underneath the crowd. Some 500 spectators screamed in panic and scrambled for safety as, following the collapse, the bull charged towards crowds at the stadium in Planadas, in the south of the country. Two men dressed as clowns tried to distract the bull and tempt it away from the mass of people before others joined them in trying to pin it down. The dramatic events at the annual fiesta were caught live on television and an investigation into how it happened has...

ARLES, France (AFP) - Lesser known internationally than its Spanish cousin, southeastern France has its own version of bullfighting with a vast following and a major difference: the bull is king and never killed. In the Provencal-style bullfights, known as the "courses camarguaises" or Camargue races, the beast is not only adversary but also star, even hero. Many towns and villages have erected statues to bulls with the sort of honor the Spanish-style corrida would grant a toreador. The confrontation of man and bull -- mythical symbol of raw force and virility -- is at the heart of all forms...