HICKEY
The death of a second Spanish matador in less than a year has reignited calls for the dangerous custom to be banned
By
NO ONE can argue that matador Ivan Fandino wasn’t aware of the risks. Barely four years ago he ended up in hospital with serious injuries after a bruising encounter with a bull, but eventually recovered and returned to the ring.
At the weekend, however, the luck of the 36-year-old from near Bilbao finally ran out.
The veteran of hundreds of fights tripped on his cape, was flipped in the air and gored in the side. The married father-of-one, who was carried away in agony, suffered a punctured lung and later died of a heart attack.
A few minutes before he was gored Fandino, who became a bullfighter 12 years ago, had won a contest and cut off the fallen beast’s ear as is the custom.
He is the second Spanish matador to die within 12 months, following Victor Barrio, in July last year, at Teruel, in the north of the country.
Although this time the fatality happened just across the border – at the Aire-sur-l’Adour festival in France – it has reignited calls for a ban.
The tradition divides Spain, with opponents claiming it is a barbaric spectacle with no place in a civilised modern society.
Bullfighting is waning in popularity there and the days, in the 1960s, when the fights of the legendary Manuel Benitez would bring the nation to a standstill are long gone. Now young people are more interested in football.
One recent survey suggests that only 19 per cent of Spaniards support bullfighting, while 58 per cent oppose it.
Yet aficionados insist that it still deserves the accolade given by the dictator General Franco, who described it as the national sport. In an apparent show of defiance, in 2015 the Spanish government bestowed status on bullfighting.
It is claimed that the tradition, which can be traced back to medieval times, is responsible for 57,000 jobs and brings in more than £1.2billion to the economy.
Supporters also point out that while injuries are common, deaths are rare. Big rings now have their own infirmaries and 29-year-old Barrio had been the first Spanish matador to die in the arena since 1992.
There is no denying that safety standards have improved, but more than 500 bullfighters have lost their lives since the 1700s.
Today there are about 400 official bullfights a year in Spain, along with up to 1,500 smaller village events.
About 10,000 bulls are slaughtered annually. Farmers receive millions of euros to breed the animals that are destined to be speared to death. A bull is between four and six years old and can weigh 92 stone.
Campaigners for a ban reject cultural assertions that the animals have a sporting chance. They insist the odds are heavily stacked in favour of the matador, who has six assistants. There are two picadores (lancers) mounted on horseback, three banderilleros (flagmen) and a mozo de espade (swordsman).
IT IS claimed bulls are driven into a frenzy beforehand by being kept in cramped pens. During the fight they become confused and increasingly tired through blood loss.
“How can anyone with an ounce of compassion cheer and chant olé as a lance is thrust into the animal’s pain-racked body?” says a spokesman for the organisation Ban Bullfighting.
It describes the ritual, which was glamorised by the American author Ernest Hemingway, as “a national shame”.
The region of Catalonia, which considers itself distinct from the rest of Spain, banned bullfighting. The central government went to court successfully to have the decision overturned, though there’s not been a fight in Catalonia since 2011. At the last corrida in Barcelona one spectator said: “To close this historic arena is like throwing a Picasso painting into the garbage.”
There is deep enmity between the rival factions and when Barrio died last year his widow received a barrage of hate mail.
To try to find common ground some areas have compromised, by ruling that while fights can continue they must not result in the killing of the beasts.
For opponents there have been breakthroughs. In Valencia, the nation’s third largest city, the practice of setting bulls loose with flaming torches attached to their horns has been stopped.
In Madrid, the mayor has ended public funding for bullfighting schools. The Canary Islands – heavily reliant on UK and German tourism – put a stop to bullfighting in 1991.
The custom of running bulls through the streets on their way to the ring, most notably in the town of Pamplona, has also been condemned.
Bullfighting’s popularity is greatest in Andalucía and around Madrid while it also thrives in the South of France, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala and Panama.
It still draws up to six million spectators in Spain every year. And in 2015 matadors, breeders and fans founded the Bullfighting Association to lobby in favour of the custom.
There’s been growing opposition to bullfighting since the 19th century and the debate could drag on for many more years.
So it is unlikely that Ivan Fandino – renowned for his daring – will be the last matador to pay the ultimate price for keeping the tradition alive.