Three Out Of Four

Ernest Hemingway famously wrote that in order for a boy to become a man, he had to complete four tasks.

• Plant a tree.
• Father a son.
• Fight a bull.
• Write a book.

The analogies for each is simple enough. To plant a tree is to give back to the earth which sustains us all. To father a son is to continue your name and your legacy. To write a book is to ensure that the world knows you were here on this planet. To fight a bull means to face death or an adversary. It's not important whether you win or lose, but simply to face something greater than yourself head-on.

Today, bullfighting was banned in the province of Catalonia in Spain. It's a sport that has been practiced there for centuries and it's a part of their culture. Naturally, there were messy scenes when it was introduced. I just finished watching a debate on the topic between an environmentalist and a former bullfighter. It was in watching it that I realised something. Something I hadn't, at first, realised.

Up to this point, I would have been ardently on the side of the bull. It's absolutely cruel to send a bull into a ring and fight a man for sport. But then, it dawned on me. A bull could very easily kill a man. They are naturally aggressive. I don't have the exact facts on it, but I'm sure it is down a basic genetic makeup of them. They are prone to aggression. A friend of mine, as a child, was travelling through a field and came across a bull. From the very second he was spotted, the bull charged him. Yes, I'm aware that they are a territorial animal and they have a 'fight/flight' reflex. But theirs is purely fight.

It's then that I considered the following. There is a perfectly good chance that the bull will gore and kill the matador. The bull, let's face it, is not a sentient being with a capacity for reason. These bulls are treated with the utmost respect and are cared for with precision up to this point. They are put in the ring and it's between the man and the bull. The bull has a better-than-good chance of winning. That's the very essence of all sport. You and your opponent. The terms of battle being you are evenly matched or not.

Consider the next time you have a steak or a burger. There's a better-than-average chance that the meat you're eating comes from a bull. It had to be killed and sliced to get there. You're enjoying the meat as it rolls around in your mouth with all its juicy textures.

The bull in the ring was killed and sliced in a similar fashion. Yes, it was poked and speared up to this. But isn't that the same for the bull that's reared in a farm? It's poked, speared and jockeyed into position. If you've ever seen 'No Country For Old Men', you'll know that the device Javier Bardem uses is actually for killing bulls. As far as I have been able to gather, the bull is beaten into a holding pen and then gets the pellet put through his head and drops him straight away. He's then taken away to be processed. There's no getting around it. Bulls have to be killed in order to be eaten.

Therefore, I find it a little hypocritical for non-vegetarians to be criticising bull-fighting. The method in which that steak is arriving on your plate doesn't matter to you. You're simply enjoying it. Would it truly bother you to know that it had tried to kill a man? Probably not. We ignore these factors. We don't care. It's a bull. It's an animal. It's the food chain.