Catalonia bans bullfighting

[culloty82]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10784611

Animal rights - or a move towards independence?

[John83]

Now we know which side the bulls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm) will be on in the next Spanish civil war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia). Of course, some people feel that this is just too much government interference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four) in traditional fun, but I guess that has to be weighed against animal rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_an_Elephant).

[Stevo Da Gull]

Brilliant news! I'm happy from a rights point of view, but with regards to the nationalistic aspect it's probably worth mentioning that Bullfighting is already banned in parts of the Asturias, Galicia and the Basque country.

[superfrank]

AFAIK, bullfighting is fairly unpopular in the north of Spain. Although it's associated with Spanish nationalism, its roots are in Andalucia and is bigger in the south than it ever was in the rest of the country.

The Canary Islands banned bullfighting about twenty years ago but cockfighting is still practiced there (not sure if it's legal), afaik, so I don't know if it was an animal rights move on their part.

In Catalonia, the place is seen as being very forward-thinking, liberal and intellectual so there's no surprise it happened there first, especially as the left-wing parties have bigger influence in the Catalonian parliament than the left-wing parties have in the Spanish parliament overall. There are a lot of Spaniards, all pro-bullfighting, who say this is a move based on Catalonian nationalism. I don't think so.

The Socialist party currently in power have already banned children under 14 from attending bullfights and from having bullfights shown on national television (although, regional television channels show them). I think the Catalonian parliament is just following the Socialist party's lead on this one. However, the Socialist party won't pass a nationwide ban on bullfighting anytime soon as it'd be political suicide and the opposition would say they'd bring it back at the next election as it would get the old folks vote.

It's a step in the right direction but it'll be a long time before bullfighting is banned across the entire country.

[Lionel Ritchie]

I seriously have to get my eyes tested. My instant reaction to this was 'I thought they split up years ago'.