I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – bullfighting is an outdated and abhorrent practice that is nothing more than glorified animal abuse.

You know what’s fun? Taunting an animal by stabbing it with a sharp knife and then mocking it in front of a crowd baying for blood. Not for me, thanks very much.

Then there’s Spanish matador Francisco Rivera Ordóñez, dubbed the David Beckham of bullfighting, who shared a photo on his Instagram account that has set tongues wagging. Let’s take a look at the photo first then:

Yep, that is his five-month old daughter in his arms. Yep, that is a bloody wound on the bull’s back caused by a stabbing knife. The translation of the Instagram caption:

“Carmen’s debut. She’s the fifth generation of bullfighters in our family. My granddad was a bullfighter as well as my dad.

“My dad did this with me and I’ve done it with my daughters Cayetana and now with Carmen.”

He then posted this, a throwback to when his father took him out to torture a bull for the first time:

Reactions were mixed, fellow bullfighters joining ranks to defend him and others sticking the knife in. Below from the Telegraph:

Alfonso Alonso, the acting minister of social security, said: “It isn’t right in any circumstances to put a child at risk.”

Equality minister María José Sánchez was also critical, saying: “A fireman wouldn’t dream of taking a child to put out a fire nor would a football player run around with a child in their arms during a match.”

I’m a big believer in ‘to each their own’, but the wanton abuse of animals for our own entertainment is something I don’t really make allowances for. I don’t care whether your daughter is in your arms or not, none of us should be in the ring goring a bull for sport.

[source:telegraph]