Matt Damon Attends a Bullfight in Mexico

by Jennifer Mishler November 22, 2011
Categories: Animals
Tags: matt damon.

It’s a safe bet that Matt Damon is about to hear from PETA. The actor was spotted at a bullfighting event while on a break from filming in Mexico.

According to the Daily Mail, Damon attended a bullfight at La Monumental bullring stadium in Mexico City with friends. Photos and sources indicate he wasn’t too into what was happening in the ring, yawning and talking to friends but applauding the fight at times. Animal organizations will likely still find his choice of event appalling, including PETA which calls bullfighting “a tradition of tragedy” and says “Each year, approximately 250,000 bulls die in bullfights, an inaccurate term for events in which there is very little competition between a nimble, sword-wielding matador (Spanish for ‘killer’) and a confused, maimed, psychologically tormented, and physically debilitated animal.”

Damon is known for his charitable work, including staring his own charity Water.org, which helps provide clean water and sanitation to people in need. But this wouldn’t be the first time he’s heard from PETA; the upcoming film We Bought a Zoo, which stars Damon and Scarlet Johansson, has drawn opposition from the animal rights organization for its message that anyone can own a zoo and care for exotic animals.

Categories: Animals
Tags: matt damon.
Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

About Jennifer Mishler

Jennifer is an animal advocate and activist. She is a volunteer coordinator with The Girls Gone Green, a nonprofit organization advocating for animals rights, veganism, and environmentalism. She is also an Onshore Volunteer with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and a volunteer with CJ Acres Animal Rescue Farm, a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates farm animals. Along with writing for Ecorazzi, she writes about veganism and animal rights on her blog, A Dog's Eye View. She lives in Jacksonville, FL with her husband and their three animal friends. Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @jennygonevegan

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BanTheFurTrade

Very disappointed in him. Bullfighting is disgusting!
nancy

Paying to have a bull tortured for entertainment is barbaric. This shows a lack of compassion or even any interest in justice.
http://herwinsvegancafe.blogspot.com/ herwin

another confused fluffy Hollywood star. Matt, enjoying animal torture and having a green charity ? Something stinks here. Greenwashing cant get rid of the blood on your hands.
Adri

I’m so disappointed in him. He should know better! Plenty of people in his circles are animal friendly, like Casey Affleck and his wife, Leo DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix, and Mini Driver. This is awful!
rat king

he got exactly the face for such a lowrider event! i never liked this guy!
Morantista

Matt Damon should be at liberty to choose the entertainment event he wishes to attend. Toreo is not a sport or a fight. It is a beautiful and dangerous art form where the artist can be killed at any time during the performance. It is an art form that poets, painters, sculptors, writers and composers have recognized as such throughout history by paying homage in their own art. It is a unique mixture of beauty & bravery (by both human and bull). Many people here cry about the treatment of the bulls but do not offer a solution for what will happen to them if it is completely banned. No animal rights organization will ever spend the money to preserve this beautiful animal. They will become extinct–hooray for animal rights! As for how the bull dies after living in freedom far longer than factory farmed animals do–I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees–or trapped in a cage while being force fed hormones and antibiotics to stave off the sickness prevalent because of the filth I live in. PETA and their ilk repeatedly spread lies about what happens during the corrida–you repeat them like lemmings. 250,000 bulls killed every year–ridiculous! There aren’t that many corridas held every year around the world to arrive at that figure. But what do you or PETA care about facts–you’re more interested in feeling superior and self-righteous.

georgina

OY! How do you know how the bull feels Morantista? The bulls used for toreo are placed in those situations and i would bet to say against their will, while the torero makes the decision to get into the redondel with the bull by his own will. If the torero gets killed,well to be honest that is what happens when you get yourself in such situations, but why does the bull need to be killed? Do you think the bull decides that his sole purpose in life is to become a spectacle for the masses to die in such a public way?

Also, let me remind you that just like you would never choose to live in filth, animals do not choose either to become factory farmed, or “trapped in a cage while being force fed hormones and antibiotics”. The goose does not want to be force fed and have a diseased liver, the cow wants to give her milk to her calf, the steer would rather keep his muscle mass and skin, and the chicken/turkey would love to have their beaks and toes intact. All the cruelty that happens to animals happens at the hands of so-called superior humans, including las corridas de toros.
BanTheFurTrade

Even if it was only ONE bull a year tortured to death for human entertainment, it would be too many. If it really is a choice between letting the breed go extinct or continuing to breed only for the purpose of this sick spectacle (don’t even try to call it a “sport” or an “art”), I say let them go extinct. It would hardly be a tragedy. And honestly, if you could choose how you died, wouldn’t you prefer to live a long life and die naturally of old age, rather than slowly bleed to death with a half dozen knives in your back? Of course you’d choose option 1. Guess what, if you could ask them, the bulls would pick that option as well. But of course, they’re never given a choice.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Erin-Elizabeth/566480478 Erin Elizabeth

Shame on Damon!

The bull is not going extinct. That is the most foolish thing I’ve ever heard. And agree w/ Georgina- how DO you know how the bull feels Morantista? I think it’s bullshit that Damon went to a bullfight. A man can die at any moment playing chicken jumping out in front of cars? Should he do that too and risk the innocent driver (like the innocent bull) as well?

So sad. Shame on Damon!

LittleMe

It always amazes me when people say that if it weren’t for intensive farming, blood sports, etc. the animals bred for these would die out ergo we should continue to inflict cruelty on them by using them for food or some twisted form of ‘entertainment’ to preserve the species. The idea is completely insane! Most of the animals wouldn’t disappear off the face of the earth if they weren’t bred to be used and abused by humans and if they did, surely being spared all that pain and suffering isn’t a bad thing.
www.earthlings.com

Damon is a douche, always has been.

He does charitable work not for the good of it, but just for the fame.

After attending this bullfight, he lost all little credibility he had.
http://herwinsvegancafe.blogspot.com/ herwin

“I think they should just shut them all down. I’ve never been a fan of places like that.”
—Matt Damon on SeaWorld, one year ago. (after a trainer was killed by the orca in Seaworld.)

so Matty isnt a fan of Seaworld, yet doesnt mind visiting a deadly bull fight.
the hypocrisy..

anyway, Jennifer, you lost your bett, Peta didnt hassle mr Damon over the bullfight.

Jennifer Mishler

Looks like you’re right, it’s a lost bet so far.

http://herwinsvegancafe.blogspot.com/ herwin

Yeah, PETA has other more serious animal offenders to hassle this month, like MARIO…
Anyway, thanks for posting this article.