Alvaro Munero, an outstanding matador, suddenly ended his career right in the middle of another fight. He suddenly realized that the bull wasn’t trying to kill him and didn’t want to fight at all. Then Alvaro collapsed in remorse, stopping the fight.
Munero never entered the arena as a matador again. He subsequently spoke out against such fights and advocated for the prohibition of such entertainment as bullfighting.
According to Alvaro, it happened this way:
“At one point I looked away from the animal’s horns and looked into its eyes. The bull stood there and just looked back at me, not trying to attack. On the contrary, his eyes begged for help, for salvation. Unexpectedly, I compared this silent treatment of the bull to the way people address the Almighty in prayer, asking for mercy and assuring him that they did nothing wrong.
It was as if the bull was saying that I could kill him if I wanted to, but that he himself did not want to fight. At that moment I felt like the most horrible and cruel creature in the world, so I interrupted this senseless violence for the sake of spectator fun.
In early 2012, Catalonia officially abolished bullfighting in the entire autonomous region of the Iberian Peninsula, in its northeastern part. The momentous event was announced on the first of January on television. The event was so long-awaited that all the animal advocates in every corner of the world could hardly hold back their tears of happiness that day.