Bullfight in Madrid
 

We are going to our first bullfight at Las Ventas in Madrid during San Isidro. After reading several descriptions of what to expect still have some questions for anyone who is familiar with protocol at such an event. How early should you arrive to enter? Do they have concessions or do you bring your own food and drink? Are you allowed to bring in your own wine? Are there resturants/bars in the area to visit before and after the event?
Thanks for any tips.

Yes, there is a protocol when attending a bullfight, especially during one of the major ferias in Spain. You should be in your seat before the first bullfight begins, otherwise you will have to wait until the first bullfight ends before they will allow you to take your seat. You can bring food with you, but there are vendors’ selling drinks in the stands and bars inside where you can buy a drink.

Hey, primeranoche, the OP asked for information, not an opinionated moralistic lecture.

:-(

I have morals.

Primeranoche modestly proclaims:

I have morals.
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So, you are a veggie person who never wears leather? So you let others do your killing where you do not see it, so that is moral?

Gel capsules often are made from bovine gelatin.
Bars of soap probably come from processed cow tallow fat. Asphalt roads may contain bovine fatty acids.
Cars and trucks may ply those roads on rubber tires made
with cow oils.

The explosive nitroglycerine is manufactured from glycerine, which is extracted from cow fat.

Cattle byproducts go into everything from photographic film to matchstick heads.

Glue made from cow's blood is widely used to make plywood.

The cow's nasal septum is processed into chondroitin sulfate, an alternative medical treatment for arthritis.

Extracted protein from horns and hooves goes into foam for fire extinguishers.

The root gland of the tongue yields pregastric lipase, which is used in cheese production as a curdling agent.

Tissue from the small intestines becomes catgut for racket strings or surgical sutures.

Epinephrine from the adrenal gland can treat hay fever, asthma or other allergies, or stimulate the heart in the event of cardiac arrest.

Catalase, a liver enzyme, goes into contact lens care products.

Most modest people allow others to tell them they are moral people.

Adu--your list does not excuse a barbaric spectacle that should be outdated in today's world. Many Spanish towns and provinces have outlawed the Corrida and I fail to see how it is in any way edifying to watch an animal being murdered slowly.

Here we go again. Aduchamp1, I think you will find those products come from animals that have been killed humanely.

scobaboy, if you are late, here are some of the delights you will have missed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKkhygTcpo&NR=1

Ah, humanely. You mean with a sharp blunt force action to the head. And you or reprsentative are there to attest to that and their living conditions?

It is interesting how people justify the killing of some animals for use by humans for what they need and like.

And for this they move into the self-proclaimed realm or moral.

'a sharp blunt force action' ¿Que?

The animals I eat are killed humanely, thank you, I am quite confident of that. Alive one second, dead the next. Not wounded then run around for 20 minutes being teased and tantalised in front of a baying crowd. We have laws and inspectors here in lil' ol' England.

Unless you are telling me that abattoirs in the US have lower standards? Maybe I'll become a veggie when I next visit.

The animals I eat are killed humanely, thank you, I am quite confident of that.
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Let us put this into perspective.

In 2000, 11,500 bulls were killed in Spain in corridas. (I found this on-line.) I guessed it was around 10,000.

In the United States in 2008,34.4 million head of cow and steers were slaughtered.

And as best I can tell slightly less than 10 million are now slaughtered in UK. The lowest level in years.

I am sure all were killed and treated humanely, especially the ones you ate.

Besides the sanctimonious moralism, there is high degree of narcissism that cattle are killed kindly just for you.

"kill" and "humanely" can´t go together, it´s quite paradoxical...

'Besides the sanctimonious moralism, there is high degree of narcissism that cattle are killed kindly just for you.'

That is drivel. You are deliberately confusing the use of domestic cattle as food and the killing of them as a public spectacle. That is what makes your first post in this thread nonsense. Examine each case:

1. Domestic cattle are killed with minimum stress and suffering to them for human consumption. I have no problem with this.

2. In a bullfight the animal is wounded, tantalised, slowly weakened and then finally killed after a protracted period so that men in pretty suits can show a screaming audience how brave they are. That fellow humans would wish to see this and apparently be entertained by it causes me many problems.

I don't think narcissm comes into it, except for the toreadors and their like. Nor sanctimony.

mikelg, I see you live in Spain. If you can watch it there I recommend this year's Richard Dimbleby Lecture if you have a problem linking 'kill' and 'humanely'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006ptbl

I'm so not going to get into this one other than this single post, but if anyone's interested, cattle are killed here in the UK using a captive bolt gun, not a blunt object. Were you thinking of the old-fashioned way of using a pole-axe? They are not humane, no. I dunno what you do in America, but captive bolt gun is the only legal way here. Exactly the same as a bullet straight into the middle of the brain. Immediate death. And yes, I have actually seen it done.

Quite a lot different to slowly stabbing something to death.

Pre-meditated murder is pre-mediated no matter the method. Let's ask the dead cow how humane it was.

It is moralism, narcissism, and denial with a strong dose of hyspocrisy to defend what you like and need and state that your nurder is on a higher plane than anoter's.

"Many Spanish towns and provinces have outlawed the Corrida"

Name three...

As far as I know, just the Canary islands. And there´s a proposal for outlawing them in Cataluña, but has not been passed yet and there´s a lot of debate going on.

I´m not pro bull fighting, in fact I find them rather boring. If pressed, I´d say that I´m against them...but it´s also true that millions of animals are bred and killed everyday for human consumption, in not so "human" conditions.

After my first bullfight , I didnt visit the country for 10 years. I think I was more disgusted with the cheering locals than with the actual act. Animals are bred and killed for food, clothes etc.... but turning it into a sporting event is just nauseating

If the fighting bulls didn't go on to fight in the arena, then you would simply be condemning most of them to death at birth. Soon you would see the complete eradication of an entire species, or subspecies, as the case may be.

It would appear to be a quandary for animal rights types and possibly even the right-to-life crowd since a fighting bull cannot be use as a working farm animal. It can be used in breeding a superior line of meat and milk cows, but it’s own meat is far too lean for your average connoisseur except as bull stew.

The toros bravos were originally given to the poor, their only source of red meat, once they served their purpose as breeding stock. This encierro, taking the bulls to the butcher for mass slaughter, eventually evolved into the bullfight festivals we know today. This way the bull lives a very comfortable life for about four years or so, eating, fighting (occasionally killing another bull) and breeding, before facing a matador in the Plaza de Toros.

Bullfighting is not meant for everyone, but neither are most blood sports, which appear to command a large audience around the world. Cage fighting? Now that’s a real sport.

A corrida in Spain doesn’t take that long and is usually over in less than 25 minutes. Much quicker and more dignified than waiting patiently in line for the butcher to come along.

Interesting debate – So is the moral of the story that those who do not want to watch someone kill an animal should not condemn those who do like to watch?