Matadors take the bull by the Velcro
He weighed more than 1,000 pounds. He huffed and puffed. He drooled and he pooped. He charged.
"Olé!" screamed the crowd, several hundred strong.
They were watching a rare bullfighting event staged Monday afternoon at the South Point hotel-casino south of the Strip.
The event, dubbed a "bloodless" bullfight, features a patch of Velcro fastened to the bull's back. Rather than using actual weapons, the matadors try to attach a Velcro-coated stick to the bulls. It appears as if they've stabbed the bull, but the animal is unhurt.
The bulls did not appear to want to cooperate.
"This is very dangerous," said Edward Silva of Don Bull Productions, the event's sponsor. "It's more dangerous than regular bullfighting" because the animals are not injured and weakened, he said.
Animal rights groups voiced objections to the event, saying that the bulls were in danger and at risk for injury and that promoting bullfighting in general was not a good thing.
Silva said the event was the first bullfight in the Las Vegas area since 1965, when one was staged outside town, near what today is called Primm.
He said the promise by the promoter of Monday's event to make it bloodless cinched the deal.
Bloodless bullfighting has become popular elsewhere, including California.
The event was staged in part to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day, which is Wednesday.
Though the crowd was sparse -- perhaps 500 people in an indoor arena designed to hold a few thousand -- they were enthusiastic. Ticket prices ranged from $60 to $650.
Most in the audience appeared to be Hispanic, and many spoke Spanish.
The matadors, including several who were said to be cultural icons in their home countries of Mexico and Spain, made quite a show of taunting the bulls.
They seemed like the kind of guys who'd get a kick out of whacking a beehive with a broom handle and daring the bees to do something about it.
The bulls charged this man and that, each armed with a cape of bright pink or red.
The first bull rested rarely, his tail swaying briskly between charges.
The matador, armed with his Velcro spear, taunted.
"Woooo!" said the crowd.
The bull attacked, and the matador did not back down. He inched closer. Closer. Closer. He strutted away, as if he'd proved something.
"Woooo!" the crowd screamed again.
One fan, Arturo Aguirre, said he had been in the United States for 12 years. He is a U.S. citizen and lives in Las Vegas, he said, but he misses certain things about his native Mexico.
The bullfight struck him as authentic.
"It's pretty close," he said. "Real close."
Aguirre recalled that in Mexico, bullfights are huge events, parties that can go on seemingly endlessly.
He called the bloodless aspect a good thing despite its inherent phoniness because the bull is not killed.
The event continues at 2 p.m. today. It will return Sept. 27-30.
Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.
