Don’t worry, there’s nothing here that will offend animal lovers! The unethical animal practice Vivian and I take on in our post is bullfighting, and we come up with a scifi version that neatly avoids all of the downsides of bullfighting while keeping the unique elements of a battle of strength and wits between person and beast! For this post, we created a creature called the Sakirakani, a large beetle that lives among the Tshutsi people. We talk about its biology and the historical relationship between them and the people, which leads to Belusakirakani, also known as beetle-fighting. From there, we focus on the differences between Belusakirakani and bullfighting, emphasizing the ways that our sport is humane and honors the Sakirakani as living creatures deserving of equal dignity as a person, even as their needs are very different. Hopefully this inspires you to take something that you might like aspects of but consider overall unethical and turn it into something you’re proud to include in your stories.
