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LIMA – In a matter of months, the new coronavirus accomplished something that animal rights activists haven’t accomplished in decades: stopping bullfighting in Peru.
The annual Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) festival in Lima’s Plaza de Toros Acho, which usually takes place in October or November, was canceled this year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The Acho bullring, with a capacity of 14,000 people, is currently used to provide shelter for homeless retirees affected by the pandemic.
“This year there will be no bulls,” Rafael Puga, a retired bullfighter who also breeds bulls, told the France-Presse (AFP) agency.
In 1973, I won the Señor de los Milagros festival’s top prize, the Golden Scapular.
It is the first time since the festival began in 1946 that it has been canceled.
“But it is also the first time that the San Isidro festival has not been held in Madrid. It’s by force majeure, ”sighs Juan Manuel Roca Rey, who organizes bullfights in the Plaza de Acho and also breeds bulls, using a legal term to refer to events beyond his control.
BIGGER THAN FOOTBALL For the first time since it was first held in 1946, Peru’s annual Señor de los Milagros festival featuring bloody bullfights has been canceled due to the pandemic. —AFP
Between social classes
Bullfighting, known as corrida in the Hispanic world, was brought to the Americas by Spanish conquerors in the 16th century and has since become very popular among Peruvians of all social classes.
Peru has more bullrings than soccer stadiums.
The Acho stadium in Lima’s Rimac neighborhood, built in 1766, is one of the oldest in the world and the oldest in America.
In Peru, “there must be 700 bullfights a year with 2,500 bulls killed,” Puga said.
But all have been banned due to the pandemic that has killed 34,000 people and infected 875,000 in the country.
Football, on the other hand, was restarted in August after a five-month hiatus, although without fans.
‘Are good news’
“The fact that there are no bullfights in the provinces is like death for the ranchers. Some will not be able to survive because the cattle eat every day, ”Rey said.
“This affects not only artists, but all of us who work around a bullfight,” said bullfighter Fernando Villavicencio, 34.
He said that the ban has also affected bullfighting assistants, those who make the highly embroidered costumes, the owners of the stables of the horses used in the bullfights and the livestock transporters.
At the Puga ranch, 140 kilometers northeast of Lima, he has 400 fighting bulls and 140 “mother cows.” There is also a small square where novice bullfighters can practice.
“We farmers now have to live from other businesses. Some have even sent their cattle to slaughter, that is, to reduce their cattle to a minimum to cut costs, ”said Puga, 72.
Still, animal rights activists are celebrating.
“This is good news. There is no reason for the bullfighting party to continue,” Luis Berrospi, an activist who also campaigns against cockfighting, told AFP.
In February, Peru’s high court rejected a lawsuit brought by animal rights activists hoping to ban roosters and bullfights on the grounds that they were unconstitutional.
More than 5,000 people had signed a petition, filed in 2018, demanding that “all cruel shows using animals” be banned.
But the constitutional court ruled that “there is no universal declaration of animal rights that has been adopted by [United Nations] or Unesco (United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture) ”.
More expensive than football
Peru has 199 bullrings, according to official statistics, much more than its 80 football stadiums.
Bullfighting websites claim that twice as many Peruvians pay to watch bullfights than professional soccer.
Tickets for the Acho bullring also cost more than those for the national football stadium. Last year, a ticket for the five Sunday bullfights during the Señor de los Milagros festival cost up to $ 1,600.
By comparison, the most expensive ticket for Peru’s nine World Cup qualifying home games was $ 1,200.
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