Fighting for the Bulls

It isn’t that Jordy Brown is especially fond of bulls. He knows there’s nothing cuddly about them. Or cute, for that matter.

But the 11-year-old Irvine boy is a champion of all creatures, particularly those that are maimed, orphaned or abused--and that includes the thousands of bulls killed in Mexican bullfights each year. Bulls, he says, are simply misunderstood.

“You have to look into an animal’s eyes to see the truth about them,” Jordy says, with the unshakable conviction of someone who has done just that. “Bulls are not mean and angry animals. Man has just made them that way.”

Beyond simply feeling sorry for the animals, Jordy took action--steps remarkable for any young boy, and all the more remarkable for one overcoming a disability, say officials at the Irvine Animal Care Shelter.

Earlier this month, Jordy was the “obvious winner” in the shelter’s annual “Be Kind to Animals Kid” contest, sponsored by the American Humane Assn., said spokeswoman Eliza Rubenstein. Judges chose him because of his sincere and ongoing commitment to help animals, she said.

“It’s one thing for a child to care about the pets and animals that are in their physical presence,” Rubenstein said. “It’s something else when the child has genuine respect for all animals, and goes to the lengths that Jordy has to help. That’s a pretty amazing leap for an 11-year-old.”

It all began when Jordy’s father returned from a trip to Mexico last year and showed his son a poster that advertised a much-anticipated bullfight. The disgusted fifth-grader called the sport “uncivilized and cruel” and made his father swear not to attend one again.

Then, when a television special on bullfighting aired a short time later, Jordy begged his mom to help him do something.

“He just latched on to it and wouldn’t let go,” Laurie Brown says of her only son. “He’s always loved animals, and this bullfighting thing really upset him.”

His mother says Jordy, a shy and tentative boy whose speech and language skills were hindered by three years of deafness as a toddler, was suddenly ignited by his new cause.

With Brown’s help, he began exploring the Internet for information about bullfighting and stepped without hesitation into an adult world of government and politics, launching a letter-writing campaign and petition drive that urges Mexican leaders to ban the sport altogether.

“They haven’t answered a single e-mail yet,” Jordy says of the half-dozen letters he’s sent to the Mexican Consulate so far. “But I’m not giving up. I just started.”

As if his ambitions weren’t already big enough, Jordy took the campaign further in January, when he saved enough of his allowance to adopt a baby bull in Baja, Mexico. Through a program that helps save the calves from being raised for slaughter in the bullfighting ring, Jordy plans to send about $40 every three months to the ranch owners to cover the cost of food.

“It’s not much and it’s worth it,” he says of the money. “If I do extra chores and stuff, I’m going to see if I can [adopt] another one someday.”

For all the praise his efforts have attracted, Jordy says he’s only grateful that it will help him draw more attention to his campaign. He knows he has a long way to go if he’s ever going to see the end of a sport that is so heavily entrenched in a country’s culture.

“But the thing is, bullfighting is not a sport,” he says softly. “It’s a ridiculous circus, is what it is.”

Jordy doesn’t aspire, as his friends might expect, to be a veterinarian. “It would be too hard to put animals to sleep,” he said. “And besides, I don’t like blood.”

Instead he dreams of becoming a professional wrestler or a politician--or both. “I wouldn’t mind being president,” he said. “I’d pass lots of animal-rights laws.”

On Tuesday, the dark-haired boy persuaded his entire special-education class at Alderwood Elementary School--and, he adds proudly, the principal too--to sign his petition and boycott bullfights.

“I just told them the circle of life goes round and round,” he says, holding a biscuit out to his dog, Rosie. “You get back what you give.”