Ask Channel 4 to remove 'Jamie Does Andalucia' from 4oD and not rebroadcast it.

The Channel 4 programme ‘Jamie Does Andalucia’, which was first broadcast in 2010 and is currently available on 4oD, contains scenes that condone and thus have the potential to perpetuate cruelty to animals, specifically bulls and horses used for bullfighting and dogs used for hunting in Spain.

At the beginning of the programme, Jamie Oliver visits a matador school, where he watches and plays with young, trainee matadors, the bullfighters of the future. He glamorizes bullfighting, describing matadors as “superstar royalty” and bullfighting as “theatre”, a form of entertainment. But there is nothing glamorous about bullfighting for the bulls. The League Against Cruel Sports says, "Thousands of bulls are maimed, tortured and killed for entertainment each year in Spain, Portugal, France, Columbia, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala and the USA. Tens of thousands of bulls die in bullfights around the world every year. It is not a fair fight as a bull faces not only the matador but also several men on horses and on foot armed with weapons.” Prior to the bullfight the bulls are weakened by drugs, blinded by rubbing Vaseline into their eyes and made more sensitive to pain by having their horns shaved. By the time they enter the ring, they are already weak and disorientated. PETA says, “From the moment the bull enters the ring, he is destined to die. His death will be slow and painful, and the last moments of his life will be full of terror and confusion as he hears the sounds of a jeering crowd. For the bull, bullfighting is no ‘competition’. It is simply slaughter for human entertainment. During a typical bullfight, the bull is first taunted by picadors – men who ride on the backs of blindfolded horses and thrust metal lances into the terrified bull’s back and neck, twisting and gouging the lances in order to impair the bull’s ability to move and ensure that he loses as much blood as possible. Next, banderilleros run around the bull and plunge banderillas – brightly coloured harpoon sticks – into his already bloodied and mutilated back. The harpoons tear the animal’s flesh, adding to his torment. When the bull is significantly weakened, the banderilleros run in circles around him until he is too dizzy and weak to continue. Then the matador appears and provokes the exhausted animal into charging once more. The matador often doesn’t succeed in killing the bull, which adds to the animal’s suffering. If the matador doesn’t kill the bull, an executioner is called in to sever the bull’s spinal cord with a dagger. In a final act of degradation, the bull is then dragged from the arena by his horns. The bull is often still conscious and twitching as his ears and tail are cut off and held up as ‘trophies’ before the jeering crowd.”

 

The horses used in bullfighting also suffer horrifically. They are also routinely drugged. Workers typically stuff wet newspaper into their ears so that they will be unable to hear, and they are sometimes blindfolded to prevent them from seeing the bulls and running away. Their vocal cords are often cut so they will not be able to scream in fear or pain. Men on horseback, picadors, repeatedly spear the bull to weaken it, while the horses bear the brunt of the ‘fight’. Although the horses are sometimes wrapped in padding, they are regularly injured in bullrings, and approximately 200 die from those injuries each year. The RSPCA says, “Although padded, the horse is often lifted bodily and then thrown on the ground.”

 

The League Against Cruel Sports goes on to say that, ”Tourism provides important revenue for the bullfighting industry. Fourteen million Britons travel to Spain every year, which makes bullfighting a British issue.” By condoning bullfighting, the programme ‘Jamie Does Andalucia’ encourages British tourists to visit the bullfights, thus perpetuating bullfighting and the horrendous abuse of the bulls and horses. In broadcasting the programme, Channel 4 both condones and perpetuates animal cruelty.

 

Later in the programme, Jamie Oliver cooks rabbits caught by the dogs owned by Spanish hunters. He then sits down to eat with these men. To catch the rabbits, the hunters use mostly Galgos and Podencos but also Pointers and Brittany Spaniels, most of which are treated very badly, living in appalling conditions. Many are kept in dark, dirty, cold out buildings, packed in so tightly they cannot lie down. Or they may be tied up outside on short chains in isolated places, unprotected from the elements. The hunters, or galguerros, feed them with moldy bread and restaurant waste only a few times a week, believing that the dogs hunt better when they are hungry. To the hunters, these dogs are a disposable tool, not a living being, and so at the end of the hunting season in February, when they are no longer of any use to the hunters and seen as a burden, more than 50,000 hunting dogs are disposed of in various ways. Some are dumped in a perrera or a killing station. Even puppies end up in these hellholes. Their chances of being adopted in Spain are slim as the Spanish public does not view hunting dogs as pets. And so they are routinely killed after 10 days in a perrera and 21 days in a killing station. But most of the hunting dogs are tortured and slaughtered by the galguerros themselves in a myriad of sadistic ways. These gentle, sentient creatures are shot, drowned, thrown down wells, doused in diesel and set on fire, tied to the back of cars and dragged along until they die, have trash bags wrapped around their heads so they suffocate and have bleach poured down their throats. Podencos routinely have their legs broken or cut off so they cannot walk or hunt, and then they are dumped in the countryside to die from starvation. In the north, the favourite way to kill a Galgo is to hang it. The Galgo that has been a good hunting dog gets hung high and so dies quickly, whilst the poor hunter is hung with its toes just touching the ground and so dances to stay alive until it becomes exhausted and slowly strangles, the rope cutting through its neck. In the Spanish countryside it is not unusual to see a Galgo hanging in an almond tree with its hind feet touching the floor, its body jerking compulsively. The hunters call this ‘playing the piano’, and to them it is entertainment; as they watch the dog struggle, they may even lay bets on how long it will take the poor creature to die. Rescue organizations and numerous compassionate individuals in Spain manage to save a few of the dogs that are abandoned and abused by the hunters. They rehabilitate these dogs and attempt to find them homes, mostly overseas. But they are always fighting against overwhelming odds. There is never enough money or space or time to save the thousands of dogs that are abandoned and abused every year. Jamie Oliver had a perfect opportunity when visiting Andalucia to draw attention to this holocaust, but instead he cooked, ate, drank and laughed with the hunters, ignoring the plight of their dogs and thus condoning the cruelty. In broadcasting the programme, so does Channel 4.

 

The League Against Cruel Sports, The RSPCA, WSPCA, IFAW, PETA, Animal Aid, The Humane Society and Animal Defenders International are all opposed to bullfighting and campaign to end it. Furthermore, according to public polls, 89% of British people would not visit a bullfight (ComRes 2008). The plight of the Spanish Galgos, Podencos and other hunting dogs is far less understood in Britain, despite the attempts of many organizations to increase awareness, yet if the dog-loving British public was aware of the horrendous cruelty inflicted upon man’s best friend in Spain, they would doubtless be shocked and just as antagonistic towards hunting as they are bullfighting. And yet, Channel 4 has broadcast and has on 4oD a programme that condones bullfighting and the abuse of hunting dogs in Spain. This is clearly a serious error of judgment that needs to be rectified.

 

The programme ‘Jaime Does Andalucia’ contains scenes that both condone and perpetuate animal cruelty and by broadcasting it, so does Channel 4. We therefore ask that the programme be removed from 4oD and not broadcast again.