Animal rights groups and anti-bullfighting

Supporters and opponents of bullfighting dueled in the Catalan parliament on Wednesday over whether the centuries-old spectacle pitting man against beast should be banned in the Spanish region.

Many Spaniards are passionately devoted to bullfighting but it has been drawing increased opposition from animal rights activists and intellectuals who consider it to be cruel. “Does this not hurt?” said scientist Jorge Wagensberg, as he brandished a matador’s sword in the parliamentary chamber.

Any spectacle which involved the suffering of a living creature was unbearable, he said. Matador Jose Miguel “Joselito” Arroyo said bullfighting was about emotion, tradition, culture and values.

“I am a bullfighter and I respect the animals,” he said. The debate follows a December vote triggered under Catalan law by a petition which drew 180,000 signatures calling for a ban, organised by “Prou!” (Catalan for “Enough”).

Bullfighting has been losing popularity for some years in Barcelona and the northeastern region of Catalonia, which enjoys considerable autonomy and strongly promotes its own culture. A top bullfighter like Jose Tomas can still pack Barcelona’s the bullring with 19,000 spectators but crowds there generally have been dwindling.

The corrida retains a following in other parts of Spain, and big festivals each year in Sevilla, Madrid and Pamplona are packed. Leading matadors are treated as celebrities and major newspapers carry pages devoted to the day’s events. Jose Tomas’ representative, Salvador Boix, complained that bullfight supporters were hounded in Catalonia.

“To be a bullfighting fan today in Catalonia means having to live almost in hiding, to have to rally and protest against moves like today’s, against a determined effort by Catalan institutions for the past 22 years,” he said.

Testimony was also given by prize-winning novelist Espido Freire. She mentioned the American writer Ernest Hemingway, whose writing on bullfighting helped popularise it with non-Spaniards. For Hemingway, Spain was “a violent and exotic country, which approved of violence” and this was an offensive portrayal, she said.

A total of 30 speakers for and against the ban have been called, including philosophers, vets, bull-breeders and animal rights activists. The next step in the process is for a report to be drawn up from the testimony, after which the proposal could put to the vote before the summer, Catalan parliamentary sources said.

If the ban goes ahead in Catalonia, Prou! has said it will try to call for bans in other Spanish regions. Animal rights groups and anti-bullfighting campaigners cite a 2006 Gallup poll which showed that 72.1 percent of Spaniards were not interested in bullfights, a proportion which rose to 81.7 percent for those aged 15-24. World Bulletin