BARCELONA — The Catalan parliament dealt the death blow to bullfighting in the region yesterday, outlawing the centuries-old spectacle for the first time in mainland Spain.
The result of 68 in favour, 55 against the ban was expected, since Catalonia’s parliament had accepted a citizens’ petition to stop bullfighting with activists concerned about animal cruelty battling devotees of the renowned Spanish tradition.
In the debate, some lawmakers cited the declining popularity of bullfighting in Spain, where fewer people go each year to the arena to watch toreros in their distinctive “suits of lights” wield red capes and swords at close range against enraged bulls.
“There are some traditions that can’t remain frozen in time as society changes. We don’t have to ban everything, but the most degrading things should be banned,” said Josep Rull, member of parliament for the Catalonian nationalist party (CiU).
Many commentators and lawmakers denied that the anti-bullfight movement has to do with separatist moves in Catalonia, but Carlos Nunez, president of the Bull Breeders’ Union, said he believed it was entirely political.
Nine lawmakers abstained from voting in the debate in which animal activists concerned about the bull’s suffering argued against those who revere bullfighting, celebrated by US Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway in the book “Death in the Afternoon”.
Animal rights activists have pledged to spread the ban from the autonomy-minded region throughout the rest of the country.
Anti-bullfighting groups gathered signatures from 180,000 Catalans, which forced parliament to vote on the tradition which dates back to 711, when the first bullfight took place in celebration for the crowning of King Alfonso VIII.
“They have heard the outcry of a society that is reinventing its traditions,” said Anna Mula, of the group Prou! (Enough!).
Before the vote, animal rights activists, one drenched in red paint, and bullfighting aficionados gathered outside parliament to hear the result.
Highly ritualised bullfighting was made illegal in Spain’s Canary islands in 1991. — Reuters