SOUTH KOREA: South Korea's traditional bullfight pits beast against beast.

Record ID: 375564

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: South Korea's traditional bullfight pits beast against beast.
  • Date: 20th April 2012
  • Summary: GIRL WEARING HAIRBAND WITH BULL'S HORN SPECTATORS WATCHING
  • Embargoed: 5th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEL0XJB3SMBSMO4LM76498E57N
  • Story Text: There is no matador and no cloak, nor is there much blood and gore.
    South Korea, which hosts several bullfighting festivals a year, a longstanding agricultural tradition, views fatalities in the ring as a waste of good bull.
    Weighing in at 600 kg to over 800 kg (1,322 to 1,764 lb), dun-coloured Korean Hanwoo bulls clash heads and horns in a sand bull ring under the warm spring sunshine of Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang, a rural town in the hills about two hours from the capital of Seoul.
    Some bulls walk out, some leave running, but all leave alive.
    In all, 96 bulls compete from April 18 to 22 for the top prize of 7 million won ($6153 USD), which goes to the winning bull's trainer.
    Lee Joong-geun, county executive of Cheongdo, says that its bullfights are more humane than those in Spain as the bull is not killed.
    "Spain's bullfight is between man and bull which assumes that man will defeat the bull. But Cheongdo's bull fighting is an energetic fight between two bulls and made a victory in a fairly match. The game is over when one of the bulls gets weak and run away. We're not abusing bulls at all," he said.
    Traditionally, a bull would have been the prized possession of a well-off Korean farmer.
    Indeed, the ranchers develop a close relationship with the animal. While on the road during competition, ranchers sleep in the same pen as their bulls.
    Bull owner Lee, had four of his animals get through to the quarter-finals.
    "I'm taking care of my bulls with more devotion than any parents would have towards their sons or daughters. Who would be able to sleep in this kind of pen for a week and work from dawn? It's a very hard job," said Lee Jin-gu, a 59-year old rancher who trains fighting bulls.
    The rancher said before the festival, he trains his bulls by having them drag tires and feeds them nutritious porridge.
    All of his bulls got through to the semi-final, while his strongest competitor "Fighting" won at last year's festival.
    Some spectators said watching the bullfight brought back farm memories for them.
    "I've seen bulls fighting many times when I put out feed for our bull. When our bull got into a fight and lost lots of blood, I cried hard thinking my parents would scold me for that," said 68-year-old spectator Son Mal-jook.
    Others were happy to see a bull fight that doesn't involve a matador fighting the animal.
    "Before coming, I was wondering how do they make the bulls fight each other. But it seems they just want to, most of them. So, it's nice there're no people in there hurting the animals," said a spectator from England, Christopher Hennessey.
    After about three minutes of shoving amid the clattering sounds of horns, it was all over.
    "Fighting" made it through to the next round as his defeated opponent gave way and trotted from the ring.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
Register