During Pope Francis’ weekly audience at the Vatican, animal rights activists made a brief interruption by displaying signs calling for an end to bullfighting.
At the start of the audience, two members of PETA, an international animal rights charity, chanted slogans before being escorted out by security personnel.
The signs, written in English and Italian, read “Bullfighting is a sin,” while the activists’ shirts bore the message “Stop blessing corridas.”
Bullfights, commonly known as corridas, are a controversial tradition practiced in countries like Spain, various Latin American nations, southern France, and Portugal.
According to PETA, thousands of bulls are killed annually in bullrings across the globe.
This protest is one of many that have occurred in recent years, urging the Argentinian Pope to speak out against bullfighting.
In the 16th century, Pope Pius V deemed bullfights as “cruel” and inconsistent with “Christian piety and charity.”
Despite this, Catholic priests still partake in religious rituals at bullfights and provide spiritual guidance to bullfighters in chapels within the arenas, as mentioned by PETA.
While bullfighting is seen as a revered cultural heritage in Spain, it involves a brutal spectacle of antagonizing and injuring the bull before its eventual death.
The bull is first lanced at the neck by men on horseback, followed by attempts to insert sharp sticks into its shoulders.
Subsequently, the matador faces the weakened and disoriented bull, engaging in a series of maneuvers with a cape before delivering a fatal blow between the shoulders to kill the animal.
It often requires multiple stabs to end the animal’s suffering.
AFP