Peter Tatchell Urges Newly Out Matador, ‘Turn Your Back on the Oppressive, Bloody Bullfighting Industry’
Peter Tatchell Urges Newly Out Matador, ‘Turn Your Back on the Oppressive, Bloody Bullfighting Industry’
London – Following the recent coming out of Mario Alcalde, Spain’s first openly LGBTQ+ matador, today, animal ally and PETA friend Peter Tatchell sent a letter (available here) to Alcalde imploring the bullfighter to see the obvious parallels between the oppression of LGBTQ+ people and that of animals and take a stand against the cruelty inherent in the bullfighting industry.
“Bullfighting is the ritualised killing of innocent animals, who have no choice but to enter the ring. They stand no chance of coming out alive. It is the killing of living, feeling beings for entertainment and pleasure,” writes Tatchell. “Our LGBT+ community has long fought against oppression and injustice. … Not only is torturing animals to death in a bullring morally indefensible, it also flies in the face of the altruistic values we stand for as a community.”
Every year, thousands of bulls are tormented and slaughtered in bullrings around the world. They are repeatedly speared and stabbed until – suffering from painful injuries and exhausted from blood loss – they are killed by a sword to the heart or a knife to the spine. Matadors may even cut off bulls’ ears or tails as trophies, sometimes while the animal is still conscious.
PETA is encouraging the Spanish public to support the newly launched #NoEsMiCultura Popular Legislative Initiative, spearheaded by animal activists in Spain, which aims to repeal the law that designates bullfighting as “cultural heritage” and empower Spanish communities to prohibit this cruel blood sport.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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