This article completely misses the animal cruelty angle.

So-called "bullfighting" is a cruel and barbaric practice that should be outlawed - and will be in time by pressure from animal rights activists. The whole thing is rigged and the bull does not stand a chance. Instead it's taunted and stabbed with spears until it dies.

This is not a sport, it's murder and a sick activity. especially in today's day and age.

The Register should not promote stuff like this.

Whilst I would agree that the sport involved is as you describe - that's nothing to do with the story covered, and I don't agree that it has any place here.

Are you suggesting that every story on el-reg should cover the complete back story and all of the moral impacts?

Should every story that includes microsoft windows include a disclaimer that it's used by companies that develop weapons of mass destruction? Hell, it's also used on warships that carry nukes!

Who decides what counts as objectionable too? I object to the brainwashing carried out by religious groups (including some christian ones) - should that be mentioned every time too?

Well said that man!

i would like to see bullfighters without spears, swords, knives and the bulls not havibg their tendons slashed - i would pay money to see a bullfighter get his ass kicked!

for me this is just like dog fighting on a grand scale - spain shouldnt be allowed in the EU with the way it treats its animals. bloody hethans!

It is just tradition - it will change as time passes. Although I wouldn't mid seeing a bull kick some hombre ass also

Get a grip you tree huggers. The article is here because of the science content, it just happens to be a fighting bull instead of a racehorse.

"... he mounted their heads at home ..."

Dude, I don't care where he did it - that's just plain wrong.

Hell, it's not even the right end ...

Surely you refer to -bull- huggers?

(which dovetails nicely with AC's post. That one made me LOLZ.)

...how do you think it will feel when all the other calves laugh at him and say that his mama is a test-tube ??

@David Wiernicki - Oi !! You leave poor innocent doves and their tails alone, you pervert !!

A man goes to Spain and attends a bullfight. Afterwards he goes to a nearby restaurant and orders the specialty of the day. The waiter brings him two very big balls on a huge plate, which the tourist eats with relish.

The next day he goes to the same restaurant again, once again orders the specialty of the day, and he is brought two very big balls on a huge plate. It tastes even more scrumptious.

The third day he does the same and the fourth, but on the fifth day he goes to the restaurant and orders the specialty of the day, and they bring him two very small balls on a big plate. The man asks, "What gives?"

And the waiter says, "Senor, the bullfighter doesn't always win!"

'By exposing the bulls to such a soul-crushing, futile and painful end, the bullfighters can separate some hand-wavingly undefined essence of the animal from its owner, which improves their character sheets as well as those of their party members and other people like the breeder and the eater of the testicles. The incantation grows more powerful as it's repeated, in the usual xp-per-level geometric series, and casts an equivalent Dark Gloom over most of the rest of the world, giving the bullfighters a further net increase in power differential against everyone else. They can leverage this differential in order to sleep with many people, and it pays for their leccy.'

Bull Gates because now you've got the same glorious scene playing out in your heads too.