Respect for bulls
Sir: In the course of writing a book on bull cults in antiquity (to be published later this year under the title The Power of the Bull) I have researched into the curious obsession which our species has demonstrated over very many centuries for playing and danc- ing with bulls; the bull led the procession of divine animals which haunted our ances- tors' imaginations and as such often formed `the noble sacrifice', an engagement with the divine which many societies, particular- ly urban communities, adopted as the cul- mination of their corporate rituals. The bull was an object of respect, even when it was killed, an act which was performed cleanly and swiftly.
The bullfight so warmly endorsed by Tristan Garel-Jones (Tong may Spain fight on', 13 September) is an inheritance of the more shameful excesses of the Roman cir- cus. Its appeal depends upon the torturing of the bull before slaughtering it, which reveals much about the society which per- mits such deplorable cruelty. In the case of Spain, which allows the tossing of live goats from church towers and the harassing of blameless donkeys by drunken mobs, there is little doubt that the bullfight is a substi- tute for the auto-dale; what it also suggests about the collective psychology of the Spanish people hardly bears contemplation.
Tristan Garel-Jones's defence of this appalling custom is regrettable. Members of the House of Lords (even very new members of the House of Lords) are allowed their eccentricities, but the support of mindless cruelty should surely not be one of them. A concern for the welfare of species other than our own is one of the very few distinctive marks of humanity; that Tristan Garel-Jones has some achievement in this respect is greatly to his credit. He should not diminish that credit by defend- ing the indefensible.
Michael Rice
Odsey House, Odsey, Hertfordshire
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