Spanish bullfighter under fire after taking five-month-old baby into the ring

Francisco 'Fran' Rivera Ordóñez had been recovering from a serious injury inflicted by a bull

Spanish matador Francisco Rivera Ordonez looks at a bull during a bullfight at the Malagueta Bullring in Malaga (Jorge Guerrero/AFP/GettyImages)

A famed Spanish bullfighter has been criticised after a picture emerged of him training while holding his baby daughter.

Francisco 'Fran' Rivera Ordóñez posted the photo to his Instagram account. It shows him holding his daughter Carmen – who is less than half a year old – as he taunts a bull calf with a red sheet.

The animal appears to have blood dripping down its side.

 

A photo posted by Francisco Rivera (@f.r.paquirri) on Jan 24, 2016 at 12:57pm PST

"Carmen’s debut. This is the fifth generation of bullfighters in our family,” he wrote alongside the photo.

“My grandfather used to bullfight with me and my father like this. My father also used to bullfight like this with me, and I have done it with my daughter Cayetana and now Carmen."

Also in the caption, he used the hashtag #orgullodesangre, meaning ‘blood pride’.

Another photo showed him as a child on his father’s shoulders in a similar pose.

Some commenters on his Instagram page voiced their disgust. One said: “You must be subnormal to be a bullfighter, but must be a total a*****e to expose your own child to danger.”

 

A photo posted by Francisco Rivera (@f.r.paquirri) on Jan 24, 2016 at 3:25pm PST

Another suggested his daughter would look at the picture in the future and say: "Dad ... are you a jerk?"

Rivera Ordóñez, who is a popular social figure in Spain, was not present at his daughter’s birth. At the time, he was recovering from a serious injury to his lower abdomen after being gored by a bull.

His father, Francisco Rivera Pérez, known as Paquirri, was killed by a bull in 1984.