Spanish Brutality

What do Spain, Nepal and Turkey have in common?

Geography? No.
Language? No.
Religion? No.
History? No.

What we share is a horrific and cruel bloodletting of innocents, which we call “sacrifice”.

Ancient cultures “honored” their gods by sacrificing the purest and the most innocent.

Aztecs are said to have sacrificed more than 80 000 prisoners to re-consecrate a temple.

The Thugee of India sacrificed 2 million people for the Goddess of death, Kali.

In China and Japan, millions of people, most of who slaves and servants, were sacrificed to bring good luck to edifices and monuments and to serve their masters in the other world.

Until 97 BC, it was legal to sacrifice humans in ancient Rome.

European cultures, such as the Celts, the Norse, Slavic people, Magyars and many others have used human sacrifice to add to their glory.

Animal sacrifice found its way into all cultures under the respectable guise of religion. All three Abrahamic religions have practiced, or still continue the practice of sacrifice. In Orthodox Greek villages, the sacrifice of goats and rams to saints is called Kourbania. Wealthy Moslems are expected to sacrifice Kurban during their pilgrimage as a part of the Hajj. Korbanot, the ritual of sacrifice in Judaism is mostly abandoned now but is regarded as the best way to absolve one from his sins.

Gadhimai, the ritual killing (jhatka) of animals in Nepal, probably the largest single such event in the world, took the lives of 250 000 cattle in 3 days this year. During the “festivities” the heads of the cattle were chopped off with a single blow of the axe, severing the spinal cord and the arteries at the same time. Although urban Hindus reject the idea, rural population practices the sacrifice with great ardor to gain the respect of their Gods.

In Spain, as in Portugal, parts of France and some Latin American countries, the ritualistic sacrifice of bulls is practiced to this day, in front of millions of spectators. Finding its roots in pre-historic bull-worship and sacrifice, it is a massive and bloody industry where cruelty to those majestic animals is funded by European Union money. Every year 500 million Euros is granted to the Spanish fighting bull breeding industry alone, from the EU funds.

Is cruelty to animals ever going to end?
Yes it will! Cruelty to animals will end the moment we realize that every conscious decision we take to end it will be a step forward.
Will we witness it?
Possibly no….
Maybe our children will. So why not start now?