This video, recorded by PACMA, shows a becerrada, in which an apprentice bullfighter attacks a young calf – who doesn’t even have fully formed horns and hasn’t been weaned from his mother’s milk.
All bullfights are horrible to watch, but it’s especially horrifying to see this young, terrified animal stagger around – as he is stabbed repeatedly and bleeds from multiple wounds – before he falls to the ground and his ears are cut off.
Last year, another disturbing video showed children as young as 14 learning how to stab calves as part of a practical exam at a bullfighting school in Madrid.
Encouraging children to torment and kill animals is deeply wrong. According to the United Nations:
[T]he participation of children and adolescents in bullfighting activities constitutes a grave violation of the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child … as they are being indoctrinated for a violent act.
Of course, such events are also unthinkably cruel to bulls.