In Mexico, a child as young as 6 can learn to become a bullfighter. As they grow in skill, they are put in the ring with bulls weighing as much as 900 pounds. They have been seriously injured, according to a KENS 5 report. One student compared bullfighting with being a gladiator — facing the potential for injury and death every time they step into the ring.
Do kids really want to do this? Perhaps. They watch bullfighting in their country and see it as a risk worth taking. Teens, after all, think they are invincible and tend to take on risky behaviors. But perhaps it’s more a desire to imitate. Bullfighters have celebrity status in Mexico, and it would be easy to understand how a young child might dream of being one of their country’s superstars.
So I fault the adults who continue to make this “sport” glamorous and who encourage children as young as six to enroll in the school. Even in Spain, as the KENS 5 report continues, one must be at least 16 to venture down this path.
Very often, humane learning must begin when children are very young in order to stick as a lifetime behavior. I am sure they are taught to respect the bull in a certain way, as that is really the only way they can survive in the ring. But you can’t convince me they appreciate the bull as a sentient being. You can’t taunt an animal and try to stab it repeatedly and then convince me that you care much about animals.