Attention - Very loud video! The deafening sound is the sound of thousands of spaniards clamoring for the Corrida, chatting yelling, opening bottles and eating.
No animal cruelty or any sort of “arena” action is shown in this video - I simply videoed the stands as I was more interested in the cultural significance and the watchers and the people attending than the killing of bulls, which eventually happened and to be precise I witnessed the killing of total of six bulls.
What I also witnessed is a very social gathering where spaniards of all ages, entire families from grandparents to kids, large and small groups of friends, brought food in massive quantities as well as bottles of all kinds, large and small trays and tupperware and people eating and drinking were the main sights. There was also some cheering and response to the bull killing announcer which I did not understand, the meaning of the words and the meanings of people cheering the action on the arena absolutely made no sense to me. But the very social aspect of all did make sense to me.
As a vegetarian and animal lover I had very many questions and doubts but wanted to see for myself what the Corrida is, what it represents, what the attitudes were of the attendants.. in all honesty I was curious... and in all honesty I had beers, saw a line, got on it and somehow ended up getting a ticket. When I sobered up and it was time to go I decided to see it nevertheless and ...also.. can you judge anything without seeing it? Of course i would not attend a guillotining and "see" what happens. But we kill and eat animals on a daily basis without any sort of questioning. Is killing a bull on the arena any more cruel than rising a farm animal for slaughter? I am still on this question 6 months later.