Bloodless bullfights

Élio Leal was born on Terceira island, Azores, where bullfighting by rope (tourada à corda) is one of the most loved forms of popular entertainment, involving a cattle ranching economy and culture. After migrating to Canada at the age of 18, his first job was at a perfume factory earning $2.85 an hour packing cardboard boxes. Two years later, he started working in the construction industry. In 1996, Élio opened his own subcontractor company specializing in the reconstruction of exteriors. In 2005, he founded another construction company specializing in the rehabilitation of interiors.

Élio dreamed of building a cattle ranch and arena in Canada. In 2010, together with Fernando Gonçalves, they spent nearly $1 million turning that dream into reality in a 360-acre property in Dundalk, Ontario. By 2016, the Leals had 300 heads of cattle and 50 horses in their ganadaria (ranch), which they called Sol e Toiros (Sun and Bulls). About 75 percent of his stock was sold for meat. The rest was primed for the bullfights.

The arena, named after the distinguished Portuguese bullfighter Vitor Mendes (a personal friend of Élio), had capacity for 3,000 people; although it never filled. The biggest turnout was 2,200 spectators at its opening corrida on July 9, 2011. After that, each corrida (about two a year) drew about 1,200 spectators, most of them coming from the Greater Toronto Area. Among the staff employed by Élio at his ranch was a live-in family that tended to his Lusitano horses, bulls, calves, and breeding cows; and three Portuguese horsemen that prepared the stallions for battle. During the bullfighting season, from June to August, Élio would fly in professional toureiros and forcados from Portugal, California, and Mexico.

Because Canadian law does not permit the stabbing of animals for training or entertainment, bullfighting promoters have to adapt to this context. Like others before him, Leal adopted a technique first developed by Portuguese-Americans in Southern California, consisting of gluing velcro onto the bull’s dorsal and on the tip of the spear (bandarilha), allowing the latter to stay attached to the animal without stabbing him or drawing blood. This presented a challenge to traditional bull farmers, who typically identify and prime the most aggressive bulls by stabbing them prior to the fights.

Another element of Portuguese bullfighting present in Leal’s arena are forcados – groups of eight men dressed in traditional campino (cattle handlers from the Ribatejo region) outfits who grab the bulls by the horns with their bare hands and bodies as the animal runs towards them. The Grupo de Forcados Amadores do Canadá was made up primarily of young Portuguese Canadians, and Canadians of different backgrounds.

After the 2016 bullfighting season, the Leal family closed their arena and sold their land in Dundalk. The high costs of organizing corridas (about $30,000-$40,000) and the relatively low turnout were the reasons leading to this decision. Since then, the Leals bought new land in Caledon and opened a new ranch where they raise cattle and Lusitano horses.

Élio is one of multiple promoters of Portuguese bloodless bullfights in Ontario, where the first bull run was held on June 10, 1989, on a 35-acre arena with a capacity for 4,500 spectators, built on Joe Borges’s farm in Maryborough Township near Listowel. Borges was said to have been convinced by his two sons to organize bull runs after they travelled to their home island of Terceira on a summer holiday. The Humane Society and the township sought injunctions, arguing that Borges was involved in animal cruelty and infringed zoning bylaws. Their opposition was ultimately defeated in the courts since they were unable to present evidence of animal suffering, either physical or signs of psychological distress. One Portuguese bloodless bullfight held in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on August 21, 1999, was also opposed by hundreds of people who signed a petition written by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Other rope bullfighting promoters in Ontario are the Marques family and their Ole Toiro, who organized events in Arthur, Ontario. All three promoters invested significant sums of money into this controversial form of entertainment – Borges’ first bull run in 1989 reportedly cost $400,000 – sometimes organizing events on the same day. Their competition fragmented the limited market for bullfights (up to 3,000 people per run at times), which made it more challenging for promoters to profit from their investments.