By briefly observing a bullfight in which bulls or heifers are used, we can see that the animal is not showing its usual behavior, it is upset, scared, whether or not he seeks an escape route, he is not calm. A series of processes are taking place in your body that warn you of potential damage.
Any new situation, even if it is not dangerous, can cause stress to an animal that has never experienced that specific situation. Therefore, the simple fact of riding a bull in a transport truck, whether heading to the slaughterhouse, the square or the street, provokes a response of stress and fear. The bulls suffer in the running of the bulls and not only because of the injuries they may suffer.
In this article on our site we will analyze whether bulls feel pain and how they are able to withstand it during the fight.
What is pain?
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential, or described in terms of such harm."
The pain that animals experience is unique to each individual, that is, it is subjective and not only because each of us has a different pain threshold, but also because pain it is not only a physical symptom, it can also be psychological and social, and can affect the natural behavior of animals.
The biological meaning of pain is the prevalence of the individual. Painful sensations activate areas of the brain that can result in attack, flight, or avoidance of the pain-provoking stimulus.
Non-human animals do not have verbal communication, so diagnosing how much you are in pain can be tricky, but they do have the same or very similar neural patterns that perceive pain, identical neurotransmitters and similar receptors to that of the human species.
Types of pain
There are several ways to classify pain according to different scientists, but almost all agree on these types:
- Acute pain and chronic pain: a pain is considered acute if it lasts less than six months and appears almost instantly after the damage of the tissue. The nerve impulse travels to the central nervous system by high-speed neurons. It is an immediate response to the activation of the nociceptive system (system responsible for perceiving pain). Chronic pain lasts longer than six months, takes about a second to appear after tissue damage, and slowly increases. It is usually related to chronic pathological processes.
- Fast pain and slow pain: it depends on the fiber (type of neuron) that conducts the pain impulse, there are fast pathways and slow. Fast pain is conducted by A fibers and would correspond to the fast, stabbing pain of pricking your finger with a needle. Slow pain travels through the C fibers, it is a more lasting pain and it takes longer to perceive it, for example a blow to the arm, we feel it, but the deep pain appears seconds later, it is not as immediate as being pricked.
- Somatic pain and visceral pain: the former is characterized by well-localized pain in the damaged area and is not usually accompanied by Other reactions such as vomiting or nausea. This pain appears when the skin, muscles, joints, ligaments or bones are damaged. The second, visceral pain, appears when there has been damage to the internal organs. It is not such a localized pain, but more diffuse, spreading beyond the affected organ.
- Nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain: Nociceptive pain is normal pain, that which is caused by physiological damage, whether somatic or visceral. This type of pain activates the nervous system, made up of peripheral nociceptive nerves, central pain sensation pathways, and the cerebral cortex. On the other hand, neuropathic or abnormal pain has the characteristic that it is not common and only appears in some individuals. This pain appears when something is wrong in the nervous system. An example of neuropathic pain is phantom limb pain, people who have lost a limb and feel pain in that part of their body that no longer exists.
Regulation of stress and pain in the fighting bull
The bull used for the fight is a subspecies that has been selected for centuries to show bravery, aggressiveness and strength during bullfights. For this reason, in studies on bull suffering, it is very difficult to differentiate whether the animal's behavior is due to pain or stress
The conclusions that can be drawn from these studies is, firstly, that the pain suffered by the bull during the fight is a somatic type, for the affected organs are the skin, muscles, joints, ligaments and bones. Likewise, it is a acute type pain , because it triggers the nociceptive nervous system.
In studies on stress, measurements of different hormones, such as cortisol, were taken to analyze how much stress he suffered during the fight. It was observed that as soon as he went out into the ring, the concentrations of these hormones were very high, but that they gradually decreased, until reaching the rapier, when the sword was stabbed into him.
This shows two things: that the bull goes into the ring with very high stress levelsbut that he is capable of formulating a response quick to adapt
The fighting bull and adaptation to pain
So, why do they say that bulls don't feel pain? As we said, the bull has been selected by the human being for centuries, "forgiving" the lives of only those who presented greater bravery or combativeness. Those animals that, despite the wounds, continue to fight, present a greater adaptation to pain
This does not mean that fighting bulls do not suffer or feel pain, only that they are more adapted to endure sufferingAll the pathways responsible for perceiving pain are activated, hormone levels rise in the face of stress, it's just that the bull, due to its anthropic selection, has developed a strong adaptation. In addition, high concentrations of opiates have been detected in the blood, demonstrating a strong analgesic process.
Death is not usually a pleasant process, most animals will die suffering, since they do not have the medical advances that we have a part of the human species. The progressive disconnection of the organs results in a slow and deep pain, so how a bull dies in the bullring is not pleasant either, much less if it dies due to the multitude of wounds inflicted.
You may also be interested in reading the arguments against bullfighting.
