Man and Beast 7: Are You Crying? There's No Crying In Bullfighting!

The Death of a Matador 
(figuratively speaking) or
Is everything you read and/or see on the internet true?

Every day, the Daily Dot finds something that people on Facebook are sharing and, in turn, shares it with you—with a little explanation. Here's today's share.

It’s such a touching image: the bullfighter who sits down, overwhelmed at the barbarism of his craft, and the bull who approaches him, as if in supplication. The noble animal is peaceful, even though it’s bleeding from darts and sword jabbed in its spine.

More than 25,000 Facebook users have liked and shared the photo, which comes with this moving caption: “the end of Matador Torero Álvaro Múnera's career. He collapsed in remorse mid-fight when he realized he was having to prompt this otherwise gentle beast to fight. He went on to become an avid opponent of bullfights.”

Facebook, can’t you get anything right?  Múnera is, indeed, a former matador turned animal rights advocate. But his conversion was far more violent. An aspiring lower-level Colombian bullfighter, he was savagely gored by a bull in 1984. It left him permanently paralyzed.

But what about that pose of regret? Turns out that photo is of a much younger bullfighter, Francisco Javier Sánchez Vara, who’s standing in “desplante”—an act of defiance. Because the bull is so near death, Vara is able to rest in its path with impunity.

Though users’ reactions are mixed on whether it’s an accurate caption, they seem to agree on one thing.

“Poor animal.....intelligent, gentle,innocent soul....as if to say 'Why? Why are you hurting me ?” wrote Robert Artese.

“I am completely against bull fighting, but that is not Alvaro Munera in the picture. This is just an A-hole mocking a dying bull,” wrote Gustavo Carcamo.

Bullfighting is barbaric, in my opinion, I attended one and vowed to never go to another. The odds are so stacked against the bulls that it seem little more than torturing a caged animal until it is to weak to take anymore and then it is killed as if the matador had done something brave and triumphant...that said, the bulls do sometimes get a few licks in before their demise, as evidenced by the following video.

Venganza de Los Toros  (Revenge of the bulls)
CONTENT ALERT: Bloody and graphic.