Video Has Emerged Of Baby Faced Killer Matador Students Stabbing Bull To Death
Schoolboys with blood on their trousers show boat after killing baby bulls in front of cheering children in the crowd in this stomach-churning video which will horrify people around the world.
The schoolboy trainee bullfighters were given the calves aged under two to practice on at a public display at an arena near Madrid.
The shock footage showed the youngsters preening like adult matadors after thrusting swords into the area between the animals’ shoulder blades and heart.
An older helper then pierces the bull’s spinal cord to spare it more pain - although some of the images appear to show the animals are left paralysed but still alive as they move their head and blink their eyes.
The disturbing footage also shows local council workers in Pedrezuela loading the baby bulls onto a mechanical digger before their carcasses are driven away.
Spanish animal welfare political party PACMA released the video - taken during a bullfighting display at Pedrezuela Bull Ring - to show the ‘dark side’ of the sport.
PACMA President Silvia Barquero admitted she and colleagues had been moved to tears by the images - and said children from the Marcial Lalanda Bullfighting School in Madrid were among those who took part in the display,
The school was recently handed £21,000 by Spain’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport after winning the country’s annual National Art of Bullfighting Prize.
Silvia said: ‘We’re used to seeing disturbing images but some executive members were reduced to tears by this video which we obviously saw and discussed.
‘Seeing these children preening and making gestures of pride towards the crowd as these young animals lie dying in the background, turned my stomach.
‘They’re some of the strongest images we’ve ever published and certainly the first uncensored video of a bullfighting school where you’re seeing the dark side of something its supporters try to glamourise.
‘Some of the animals are still alive when they’re carried away. They go through a terrible amount of pain and suffering.
Luis Victor Moreno Barbieri, vice-president of PACMA whose initials in Spanish stand for The Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals, added: ‘I thought I’d seen everything but I’m still shocked by the sadism of some people.’
On the instructions of their lawyer, PACMA executives covered the faces of the child matadors, thought to be aged 14 and 15, as well as the youngsters packing the stands just a few feet from where the bull calves were slaughtered.
The images in the explicit video - recorded on September 29 and released last week - were filmed by a PACMA member who mingled with family and friends of the young bullfighters cheering them on from the crowd.
Entry to the event was free of charge and billed on one advertising poster as a ‘fabulous practical class’ with ‘four beautiful bull calves’ and the participation of pupils from Madrid’s leading bullfighting schools.
The crowd is filmed applauding in appreciation in one scene as a youngster thrusts his sword into the exhausted baby bull which minutes before sprinted into the bullring but can now only stare at the ground awaiting its fate after being weakened with barbed sticks known as banderillas.
Blood stains are clearly visible on the beige-coloured trousers of another fresh-faced matador as he prepares for the final kill.
After the animal falls to the ground, he stands proudly in front of the crowd to arch his back and do a slow turn in emulation of his adult idols - just like other lads his age across the world mimic footballer Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark celebration when they score a goal.
The video comes after a vote by the European Parliament to end subsidies for farmers who raise bulls to fight.
The popularity of bullfighting in Spain has been steadily waning in recent years.
A recent survey showed 60 per cent of young people quizzed were in favour of banning bullfighting.
Spanish government figures also show a fall in interest.
The Balearic Islands is expected to follow the lead of Catalunya and the Canaries by banning bullfighting next year.
Madrid’s new left-wing mayor announced last month she was scraping an annual subsidy of nearly £45,000 for the Marcial Lalanda Bullfighting school, which takes in pupils aged as young as nine.
A Madrid town hall spokesman said the school was on council-owned grounds and relied on municipal funding but its new left-wing city government had decided it no longer wanted to subsidise ‘animal mistreatment.’
Jose Luis Bote, artistic co-director at the bullfighting school, confirmed pupils aged 14 to 16 took part in the display.
He said: ‘PACMA acts like a sect and wants everyone to think the way they do instead of allowing freedom of expression to flourish.
‘If they want to denounce us why didn’t they go to the courts instead of using social networking sites on the Internet.
‘They should just leave us alone and let us get on with what we do which is authorised and legal under Spanish law.’