Catalonia Bans Bullfights in First Mainland Spanish Act Against Tradition

Catalonia’s parliament in Barcelona voted to ban bullfighting today in the first such prohibition in mainland Spain.

Regional lawmakers voted 68 to 55 for the ban, the speaker of the assembly said. The bill was the result of a popular initiative backed by 180,000 signatures, according to the Prou platform behind the initial campaign.

“Toreros” have fought half-ton bulls to the death in public arenas for centuries, inspiring writers including Ernest Hemingway. Opposition to the tradition has been growing in recent years, with a third of Spaniards favoring a bullfight ban, rising to a majority among those aged 18 to 29, according to a poll for El Mundo newspaper in 2007.

The number of bulls taken on in 2009 fell to 4,436 from 6,396 in 2003, according to data from the Interior Ministry. Catalans are less interested in bullfighting than many of their compatriots as 106 bulls faced the matador’s sword in the region last year, compared with more than 1,000 in Andalucia and almost 800 in Madrid.

The vote comes as Catalonia is battling Spanish institutions over its identity and two weeks after tens of thousands of people marched in Barcelona for the right to call the autonomous region a “nation.”

Animal Protection

“The reality, and you know it, is that for some political groups it’s not about animal protection,” Albert Rivera, of the Mixed Group said in the parliamentary debate before the vote. “You want to eliminate everything that reminds us that Catalonia forms part of Spain.”

Supporters of the bill say it’s not part of Catalonia’s bid for greater autonomy. Josep Rull, a regional lawmaker for Convergencia i Unio, said the law is about ending cruelty to animals and would make Catalonia more European than the rest of Spain. CiU allowed its lawmakers to decide individually how to vote.

“As a nation we will take a step forward and that gives us a certain pride,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday. “A majority in Catalonia has values that are shared with the rest of Europe.”

The Canary Islands banned bullfighting in 1991 as part of a wider law that aimed to protect domestic animals, singling out a ban on dog fights and the phasing out of cock fights.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at

I'm opposed to the killing of bulls - animals should not be killed in the name of human entertainment. In the 21st century, bullfighting should be confined to the history books."- Dalai Lama