Fuente: eldiario.es
- Controversial images of the 'touring' event held in the Plaza del Altozano in Albacete with children playing at killing bulls.
- It is one of the events organized on the occasion of the International Congress of Bullfighting.
The "bullfighting demonstration" held in Albacete's Plaza del Altozano, in the city center and just a few meters from the Teatro Circo where María Dolores de Cospedal and José Ignacio Wert inaugurated the First International Congress of Bullfighting, has generated controversy due to the use of children to teach them bullfighting techniques, practices, and how to kill bulls. Children as young as two or three, up to seven or eight years old, held capes, imitating the figures they had seen.
This gathering was primarily organized by local bullfighting enthusiasts from Albacete, including members of the city's bullfighting school, as well as other aficionados from towns like Hellín and Tobarra, who took the opportunity to promote upcoming bullfighting events in their respective cities. Around 80 people gathered in the Plaza del Altozano, of whom just over a dozen were practicing with capes and swords, occupying a little more than a quarter of the plaza.
The use of minors to teach these types of events has been heavily criticized by various groups, mainly for "selling" bullfighting to children as a game so they can pose for photographs as if they were matadors. This has also been done with public funding in towns like Daimiel (Ciudad Real) and Caudete (Albacete), where schoolchildren were recently taken to learn about "the art of bullfighting," hoping that "future bullfighting stars will emerge and begin to familiarize themselves with bullfighting paraphernalia," according to the organizers.
The children can't stop imitating what they see on television or in the newspapers, mimicking the movements of bullfighters while their parents and relatives take photos and videos. The most daring even faced off against a set of practice horns (the kind used in bullfighting schools) by performing certain passes with the cape, while the older children practiced their own passes.
Environmental groups, animal rights activists, and even politicians have repeatedly criticized the use of children in bullfighting, considering it a brutal practice that results in the death of an animal. They demand that public funds no longer be used to pay for this pastime and that fans themselves, if they wish to celebrate it, do so like any other organization, funding their own activities without using public money for something that demonstrably divides society.
While the 'toreo de salón' meeting has been held at the doors of the old Town Hall and meters from the central headquarters of the congress, the Circo Theater, the animal rights rally that was called has not received permission to do so and has been granted a location 500 meters from the event.