Bull-fighting ban -– Catalunya
law-makers set for final vote
SOME CALL IT ‘SPORT’:
Exhausted and weakened
by torture, the bull is made
ready for the 'brave' matador.
by Sue Davies
Catalunya’s parliament, the Generalitat, will soon be taking a
final vote (likely to be July 15th) on whether to ban bull-fighting. It
follows a 67-59 parliamentary vote last December to end
the pitiful so-called sport in Catalunya. That vote, which came
after a 180,000-signature petition was submitted urging the ban, needs
one further vote.
It is expected that the ban will be ratified and will become law, but in recent months those in favour of torturing bulls have mounted a ferocous campaign against the ban so the vote could be close.
Meanwhile, the campaign to make Catalunya the first mainland region to ban bull-fighting (it has been forbidden in the Canary islands since 1991) has attracted many personalities, the latest being actor and comedian Ricky Gervais.
Some 15,000 bulls are killed every year in this barbaric manner.
Much to its credit, the Spanish daily newspaper Publico ran a hard-hitting series on the cruel treatment of bulls, not just in bullfight arenas but in traditional “festas” at town and villages up and down Spain.
Another daily newspaper El Pais highlighted one of those “festas”, the traditional Toro de la Vega (Bull of the Plain) event at Tordesillas, Valladolid, when 32,000 turned out to enjoy the sight of horse-riders armed with lances chase a terrified bull across country. The poor animal lasted just 12 minutes before being dispatched by one of the “brave” lancers. The annual event is rightly condemned by animal cruelty protesters.
In Catalunya, Catalans have traditionally been cool towards bull-fighting, despite the efforts of dictator Franco to ram it down their throats.
Since the return of democracy, several Catalan municipalities have passed by-laws banning the so-called “sport” even if, like the resort of Tossa de Mar, they never actually practiced it. And the huge former bullring at Espanya in Barcelona is soon to become a vast shops, cafes and apartments complex after a massive refit.
Still, bull-fighting continues at the city’s Monumental bullring, though it seems to have been on the verge of closure for some time. It is kept going mainly by a mix of immigrants from other parts of Spain and tourists.
The plight of Spain’s bulls is not lost on people in Cymru. This letter, by Dee Davies (no relation), of Brynaman, Carmarthenshire, appeared in the Welsh daily, The Western Mail:
SIR - We must urge the EU to stop subsidising bull fights using taxpayersf money.
The European Union is spending ’30m a year to support Spanish bull fights, which will kill at least 40,000 bulls this year.
The EU has also renovated bull rings and is being urged by the Spanish government to recognise bull fighting as representative of Europefs cultural heritage.
The organisers of bull fights in Spain have told me that they love the EU because they now receive enough subsidies to kill 15 or 16 animals in a fiesta rather than the traditional one or two.
The EU is supporting the torturing to death of bulls in the bullring and countless other animals in village blood fiestas.
I find it absolutely disgusting that a proportion of my tax goes to support animal abuse.
Bullfighting is a cruel blood sport that should have been relegated to the history books a long time ago.
No matter what its history is, bullfighting consists of the torture, mutilation and slaughter of animals for entertainment.
Please write to EU Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel today and ask her to put a halt to subsidies for this blood sport.
DEE DAVIES
A harrowing description
A detailed and harrowing description, backed up by photos, of what really goes on in a bull-fight can be found at