Ricky Gervais has hit out at a Spanish matador who wiped away ‘tears’ of blood from a bull before he killed it, calling him a ‘sequinned c*nt’.
The matador, Morante de la Puebla, was taking part in a bullfighting festival at the Real Maestranza bullring in the city of Seville, Andalusia, when the incident happened.
Badly wounding the animal before wiping blood off its face with a handkerchief, Puebla then murdered the bull in front of the crowd.
Gervais has longed criticised those who hurt animals for fun under the guise of sport or ‘tradition’, in particular trophy hunters.
Using his platform to draw public attention to this horrifying incident, the After Life star used a select few words to show how he really felt about the man wiping the bull’s ‘tears’.
Not holding back on the matter, Gervais took to social media to denounce the matador as a ‘dirty little psychopathic sequinned c*nt’. So, yeah.
The bull was pictured with four spiked ‘banderillas’ (decorated wooden sticks with spiked ends) sticking out of its back before it was killed by Puebla.
The matador’s gesture has been described as ‘malicious and perverse’ by an animal rights group, while bullfighting fans say it’s a sign of respect for the animals.
Silvia Barquero Nogales, leader of Spain’s Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (Pacma) political party, said:
Only a malicious and perverse mind could torture an animal until the blood pours down its legs and then wipe its face with a tissue.
The matador is just disguising for his lack of empathy. Abolish bullfighting now.
Since footage of the incident got shared online, many have slammed the matador, calling him ‘sadistic’, ‘psychopathic’, and ‘hypocritical’ – as he went on to kill the bull only moments later.
The incident has led many to call for bullfighting to be cancelled once and for all, since the video shared online showed the true extent of the bull’s distress.
However, fans of bullfighting said Puebla was simply showing respect to the animal, as other famous matadors have done in the past.
Hopefully Gervais’ input will continue to draw attention from the masses, and have some influence in shaping a brighter, less barbaric, life for the world’s bull population.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).