CAS International
CAS International (Comité Anti Stierenvechten) is the biggest organization in the world which works exclusively on the abolition of bullfighting and cruel fiestas (festivals) during which bulls and other animals are tortured. Together with our colleague organizations, we want to end this animal abuse as soon as possible.
More information about CAS International.
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is one of the most cruel forms of animal abuse. Every year, more than 250,000 bulls and cows are tortured and killed worldwide during bullfights and similar events.
Also during fiestas ('village festivals'), tens of thousands of bulls and other animals are severely maltreated.
More information about bullfighting and fiestas.
Glossary
The bullfighting industry uses a lot of Spanish expressions to describe bullfighting. Below you can find the most important expressions:
- Alternativa: public initiation bullfight during which - as a right-of-passage ritual - a professional bullfighter (the 'godfather'), officially presents a new member of his profession, who will from now on only fight adult bulls.
- Banderillero: torero who sticks banderillas (barbed spears) in the back of the bull.
- Becerrada 'profesional': bullfight during which bulls younger than 3 years old are used.
- Capea: 'amateur' bullfighting activity which involves provoking bulls or cows with capotes and not stabbing or killing them in any way.
- Capote: Long and heavy magenta cape (yellow on its reverse) used by toreros in the first act of a bullfight to lure the bull and force it to charge, in order to assess his character and start to exhaust him. It is also used during capeas, and when accidents occur to move the bull away.
- Cavaleiro (Portuguese): bullfighter on a horse in Portuguese style-bullfighting.
- Corrida (de toros): bullfight during which bulls of 4 to 6 years old are used.
- Cuadrilla: the team of a matador, composed by banderilleros, picadores, puntilleros, mozos de espadas and other bullfighters who assist him during the 'fight'.
- Encierro: Running of the Bulls, in which a group of bulls and/or cows are provoked into a stampede through the streets during a fiesta, while people run behind and in front of them. Bulls may be killed in the end during a bullfight (like in Pamplona).
- Estoque: sword used to kill the bull during a Spanish-style bullight. Estocada is the act of stabbing the bull with this sword.
- Fiesta/Feria: 'town/city festival' organised by a municipality in the form of a public celebration that may last a few days, often in honour of a Catholic saint or Patron. In many towns/cities bulls and/or other animals are abused, and even severely tortured and/or killed during these festivals.
- Forcados: bullfighters on foot performing in Portuguese bullfights, who wrestle the already exhausted bull in teams of 8 people, until the bull is immobilised.
- Ganaderia: cattle breeding farm.
- Matador: the most important torero in Spanish-style bullfighting. He has to kill the bull with a sword, and is the only torero that uses the muleta, with which he makes the 'passes' towards the bull that aficionados interpret as ‘art’.
- Muleta: the matador's short red cape, with which the already exhausted bull is lured in the third and last 'act' of a Spanish-style bullfighting. The muleta is used by the matador to move the bull around and 'deceive' him into believing that it is the threat he has to charge.
- A torero with a muleta © ADDA/CAS
- Novillada: Spanish-style bullfight using training bullfighters and young bulls between the ages of 3 and 4 years old.
- Novillero: a bullfighter in training who has to take the alternativa to become a professional bullfighter (matador) and who is only allowed to 'fight' bulls up to 4 years old.
- Peña taurina: bullfighting fanclub.
- Picador: bullfighter on a padded horse in Spanish-style classic bullfighting who cuts the neck muscles of the bull with a long lance (the pica), to prevent the bull from lifting his head and to make him bleed.
- Plaza de toros: bullring.Presidente: 'president' (of a bullfight) who is the decision maker and arbiter during the bullfight and decides if the bull can be pardoned (indulto), if the bullfighter deserves a trophy (the ears and/or the tail of the bulls), if music is played and when, and so on.
- Puntilla: dagger used to paralyse and kill the agonized bull when he is already on the floor, by stabbing it in the back of his neck and cutting into his central nervous system. It is used by the puntillero, a member of the matador’s cuadrilla.
- Recortadores: type of bullfighting which involves provoking bulls or cows in order to 'dodge' them when they charge, without the use of any cape or protection.
- Rejoneo: Spanish-style bullfight where the main bullfighter is riding a specially trained horse, and the bull is 'fought' and killed from the back of the horse.
- Temporada: (bullfighting) season.
- Toreador: term used in France as a synonym for torero. It would be wrong to use this term in Spanish, since it does not exist in this language. It was spread by the opera Carmen (Bizet), and therefore it is sometimes wrongly used by foreigners. In this opera, a girl falls in love with a bullfighter.
- Torero: general term for everyone who 'fights' adult bulls or cows during bullfights (matador, picador, banderillero, etc), although it is not regularly used to describe training bullfighters (novillero is used instead) and it is most commonly used as a synonym for matador.
- Toro: bull.
- Toro de lidia/Toro Bravo: bullfighting bull.
- Tourada: Portuguese word for a Portuguese-style bullfight.
- Verdugo: special sword that ends with a dagger used to paralyse and kill the agonized bull when he is still standing and the estoque has already been used. The matador uses the verdugo to stab it in the back of the bull’s neck and cutting into his central nervous system.
Tips for tourists
CAS International has made a list of tips for tourists, so you can also help us abolish bullfighting and other cruel events with bulls and other animals as a tourist.
The main tip: never go to a bullfight or a cruel fiesta, like the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona!
Please take a look here for more tips.
Videos
Videos of bullfights, cruel fiestas and protests of CAS International and others.
- Flash is required!
Photo album
In the CAS photo album, you can find photos of protests, bullfighting and cruel fiestas.
CLICK HERE for the photo album.
