A group of animal rights activists dressed in beige and black in reference to a bull's skin, implanted sticks to their shoulders in an effort to look like the bloody darts of bullfighting and laid on the pavement in Mexico City on Sunday. They were protesting the continued acceptance of bullfighting in the country. Other activists from the local animal rights group Animanaturalis poured jugs of fake blood over them, hoping to send the message that bullfighting is cruel. “It is not a sport. The animal, the bull in this case, is not deciding to take part in this act. Therefore, it is not a sport. It is abuse and exploitation of a defenseless creature that didn't decide to be there,” said Animanaturalis spokeswoman Teresa Menendez. The protesters then arranged their bodies to form the word “basta,” which in Spanish means enough, or stop. Mexico is one of eight countries where bullfighting remains legal. “Anti-bullfighting” municipalities now exist in France, Portugal, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador and Spain. Spain's Catalonia region abolished bullfighting in 2008. BM
