30

Having gone round & round with an Argentinian animal rights type who crashed this board whenever anybody asked anything about bullfighting, if somebody is interested in this cultural tradition why apply your standards to their interest?

The argument over animal rights does not belong on a travel board. We should be big enough to realize that standards vary all over the world, and that goes for how people treat people as well.

It is simple enough to say that if you do not like the way people treat their animals, take action yourself while visiting there or start a campaign, don't criticize others for not doing so.

31

I'd say that when it comes to horses used for transporting tourists,that is exactly the kind of thing that 'belongs on a travel board'

Local people don't use those carriages.....

If the thread is 'hijacked' by other people talking about irrelevant things.that is not the OP's fault (and its normal practice on the TT anyway ;-)

32

My point is that mistreatment of animals occurs worldwide on a daily basis. If we were to address this in each and every thread on a travel board, our board would quickly be overwhelmed with every thread becoming devoted to animal mistreatment.

For example, Luca, I heard that several horses died this year at the Palio di Siena. So whenever somebody posts about Siena in the Italy branch, do people go on there and caution that they mistreat animals in Siena and nobody is doing anything about it?

33

I don't think people talk about horses every time they post about Seville...its not such a regular occurence ;-)

If someone wants to point out a thing which is directly relevant to travelers/tourists (as this is)...why not? Whichever country it happens to be in.......

.

34

Of course that bullfights belong on a travel board, because there are tourists who want to see a bullfight and many do not even know what´s really going on there and specifically theu do not consider that as tourists they are contributing that this practice goes on. Of course there is animal cruelty in many countries but that does not mean that you cannot critize bullfights in Spain.

35

Whatever you might think of it, Tauromaquia is an intrinsic part of this country's identity, which is why 50-60% of the Spaniards, at least in PP voter terms (and a good deal of PSOE voters, let's be honest), would like to see it declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Critics have a hell of a lot of convincing to do if they're to turn around public thinking on this question. The road is long with many a winding turn etc. Also, a lot of these public acceptance statistics held up as gospel by animal rights advocates I'd take with a serious pinch of salt. I live in a small provincial town in the north-west (Pontevedra). It has a 'coso' (bull ring) which only opens for 'corridas' on three weekends of the year and it always sells out with the fiesta continuing in the old town into the early hours afterwards. When José Tomás (the Lionel Messi of bullfighting) is in town, tickets will change hands for literally 1000s of euros. A good friend of mine who is a keen aficionado says it will be brought down eventually by "malpractice" and unscrupulous promotors/fighters, not AR opposition groups. Question of time...