For those of you who don't know the original story, here's a summary of the plot from Wikipedia:
"Young Ferdinand does not enjoy butting heads with other young bulls, preferring instead to sit under a cork tree smelling the flowers. His mother is concerned that he might be lonely and tries to persuade him to play with the other calves, but when she sees that Ferdinand is content as he is, she leaves him alone.
"Ferdinand grew to be the biggest bull in the herd. He often spent time alone, which allowed him to become a much easier catch for the five men coming to choose a bull to take to Madrid for the bullfight. All the other bulls dream of being chosen to compete in the bullfight in Madrid, but Ferdinand still prefers smelling the flowers instead. One day, five men come to the pasture to choose a bull for the fights. Ferdinand is again on his own, sniffing flowers, when he accidentally sits on a bumblebee. Upon getting stung as a result, he runs wildly across the field, snorting and stamping. Mistaking Ferdinand for a mad and aggressive bull, the men rename him 'Ferdinand the Fierce' and take him away to Madrid.
"All of Madrid, including many beautiful ladies, turn out to see the handsome matador fight 'Ferdinand the Fierce.' When Ferdinand enters the bull ring, he is faced with the matador, banderilleros and picadors who panic when they see him. However, he is delighted by the flowers in the ladies' hair and sits down in the middle of the ring to enjoy them, upsetting and disappointing everyone, making matador and other fighters throw tantrums. Ferdinand is then taken back to his pasture, where to this day he is still sitting under the cork tree happily smelling flowers."
But is this really what would happen? Would the masses and the matadors accept such a lazy parasite in their midst?
Of course not. If they would not tolerate this from a person, why would they tolerate it from a bull?
This is the actual tale of what happened to Ferdinand, once he was on stage.
Brazen Bull Ending:
The matadors threw down their hats in frustration. The crowd was booing at the lazy bull sitting in the ring. So much expense had been made to get this bull to the ring to perform - there had to be a way to please the crowd.
Suddenly, they had an idea.
A few minutes passed, and the matadors returned with a beekeeper carrying a beehive from a branch they had found.
They tossed the beehive onto Ferdinand, causing the bees to go wild and sting him all over, making Ferdinand foam at the mouth and flail wildly in pain and anger.
Seeing who threw it, Ferdinand angrily swung his horns at the matador, causing the crowd to cheer.
The show had begun. The matador who threw the bees, Chevara, used himself to keep the bull in his antagonized state, with the other matadors protecting him.
Ferdinand went through leaps and carpets and made the audience cheer at the bull still being stung by bees, as they cheered and even joined in by hurling broken bottles at the bull's flesh, yelling "kill the demon!"
Matadors beat the bull on the sides with clubs as Chevara laughed sadistically at the tormented face of the bull, who displayed a blend of despair and rage.
A matador came up and swung a sharp spear in his face, cold eyes with no smile but the smirk of pleasure could still be seen in them.
Ferdinand lunged at the matador and impaled him on his horns right through the chest, and threw the matador's lifeless corpse against the wall.
Silence befell the matadors and the stage, and at once the cheers turned to screams.
"Kill him!"
"What a soulless monster!"
"Hellspawn!"
"Brazen Bull incarnate!"
The matadors surrounded Ferdinand, and began impaling him from all sides. First the arms and legs. Then the groin. Then the face. Then the stomach. Always avoiding a lethal blow to the chest.
The crowd cheered. Coins was being thrown onto the stage as quickly as Ferdinand's blood flowed onto it.
"For the matador's family! Butcher that murderer!"
"What a terrible way to die! Show that soulless demon how it feels! Its the only way he'll ever know it!"
And finally Chevara came up, smiling ear to ear, on the bull just before he fully bled out, and the matadors began butchering the cow and ripping off pieces of his flesh until the cow spit in Chevara's face, and Chevara, in a rage, took his spear and shoved it right through Ferdinand's heart.
Ferdinand's severed head was taxidermied and mounted as a memorial to the fallen matador and a reminder of the bravery and heroism of all matadors.
His flesh was divvied up amongst the matadors, and some nobles and rulers took the meat, desiring to gain some of the strength and might of "Ferdinand The Brazen". Local priests condemned this practice publicly, calling the bull "demonic", but privately dined on his flesh. While the flavor wasn't noteworthy, it gave them a sense of euphoria and power.
Even the elderly came up and drank Ferdinand's blood from the stage hoping to feel their youth again, and pieces of his fur even were prized for centuries to come as relics of power and vitality.
And thus Ferdinand was known as "Ferdinand The Brazen", the most evil, demonic, soulless bull to ever enter the arena!
Not The Bees Ending:
The matadors threw down their hats in frustration. The crowd was booing at the lazy bull sitting in the ring. So much expense had been made to get this bull to the ring to perform - there had to be a way to please the crowd.
Suddenly, they had an idea.
"This bull nothing more than a lazy dreamer, taking grass from other bulls that will perform for us!", Chevara yelled.
The crowd cheered in anger.
"Ferdinand must not be allowed to breed, otherwise we will be stuck with pastures full of cow manure and lazy fat cows for bulls", Chevara goaded.
The crowd cheered in agreement.
"I will save our courageous bulls from the pestilence of this degenerate, cowardly swine here and now!"
The crowd cheered as Chevara and his matadors began to flay the bull living as he laid there. Ferdinand, angered but too tired to respond, and remembering what he mother taught him about the futility of anger and violence and thinking that may be why he ended up here, laid there still hoping the crowd might yet show some humanity and let him return to the field and be left alone, wailing in pain and anger as the matadors carved the flesh from his body and spat an laughed in his face. Hours passed, and the crowd still cheered. "Get up and fight you coward!" "What's with the sense of entitlement on this bull?"
Eventually, Ferdinand died from blood loss, only once he was fully castrated, his horns yanked out of his skull, his bones were visible, and his face was a faded memory, and the matadors sold his meat and bones to compensate the cost of dragging Ferdinand there, passing it off as regular bull meat so it would sell.
The legacy of Ferdinand the Coward was a decree from the King that all bulls who show signs of Ferdinand's indolence and degeneracy be taken to the local slaughterhouse so they may be kept from breeding and poisoning the herd with such decadence.
Moral of the Story:
If this story is read by enough, I'm sure it will end the practice of bull fighting and the matador's great grandchildren will be punished for it.