Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
I think when something is taking place in what is (nominally, at least) a modern, civilised, developed nation that has had all the benefits of the Enlightenment, it becomes valid to judge it by those standards. Maybe one can cut savages some slack because...well...they're savages, but if people want to tell me they are civilised, I will judge them by those standards.
Also, the issue is not so much the fact of the animal's suffering as the crowd's conscious decision to revel in that suffering. It is that I find disgusting.

Also, it's 'Coup de grâce', btw. What you wrote means 'blow of fat'.
How do you know if the crowd revels in the bull's suffering if you have never been? You see, this is one of the reasons I went, a desire to experience and understand it better.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. One of the things that the crowd seemed to appreciate was the skill used to dispatch the bull quickly and as painlessly as possible. The matador for the second bull seemed to be struggling to finish the bull off and the more he struggled the more the crowd seemed to object. It was the football equivalent of the Emirates when Ramsey gives the ball away, yet again.

Having been to see it, I think the moral argument against it is very dubious.