http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-catalonia-bullfighting-2010...

After heated debate, Catalonia bans bullfighting
Defenders of the sport see it as a hallowed tradition, but opponents deem bullfighting barbaric. Some see the move as an attempt to assert Catalan identity.

By Henry Chu Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 28, 2010 | 2:49 a.m.

BARCELONA, Spain —
The independence-minded region of Catalonia became the first on the Spanish mainland to outlaw bullfighting Wednesday after impassioned debate.

Lawmakers in Catalonia's regional assembly approved the ban after emotional speeches that mixed expressions of support for maintaining tradition with denunciations of bullfighting as institutionalized cruelty.

The vote culminated a public initiative to ditch bullfighting that began more than 1½ years ago and has drawn international media coverage. Backers of the ban erupted in cheers in the assembly chamber's gallery.

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But critics have assailed the campaign for a ban as a pretext for more nakedly political and nationalist ends. They suspect the true motive is a desire to poke a stick in the eye of the rest of Spain, an assertion of Catalan identity as different.

The assembly vote here in Barcelona, the regional capital, came during a mood of heightened anger among Catalonians clamoring for more autonomy, if not outright independence.

Earlier this month, Catalan nationalists put on one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in this sun-splashed part of northern Spain. The protest was fueled by outrage over a long-awaited ruling by Spain's constitutional court that upheld most of Catalonia's charter on greater self-rule but refused to recognize a legal basis for calling the region a "nation."

Conservatives say that getting rid of bullfighting further undermines Spanish unity, calling it a gratuitous attack on one of the country's most hallowed traditions.

Advocates of the ban reject suggestions that their views or actions are a byproduct of Catalan separatism. They see bullfighting not as a tradition steeped in romance but a barbaric practice steeped in blood.

When the anti-bullfighting organization Prou (Catalan for "Enough") launched its petition drive to put the issue before lawmakers, its goal was to clear the legal hurdle of 50,000 signatures; it wound up collecting 180,000.

Nonetheless, the issue was a sensitive one for Catalonian politicians, who are facing an election later this year.

Before Wednesday's vote, bullfighting fans and foes gathered outside the parliament building to press their case as lawmakers arrived to take their seats inside. One anti-bullfighting activist stripped himself naked, then poured a bucket of fake blood over himself to encourage legislators to "stop animal cruelty."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0728/Catalonia-votes-for-less-death-i...

Catalonia votes for less death in the afternoon with bullfighting ban

Catalonia, the Spanish region where independence sentiment runs strong, voted to ban bullfighting in a move that some said stressed its differences from the rest of Spain. But the old pastimes popularity is fading, and activists said it was simply the humane thing to do.

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A bull is seen during a bullfight in the Cuatro Caminos bullring in Santander in northern Spain July 28.

Nacho Cubero/Reuters

By Robert Marquand, Staff writer / July 28, 2010
Paris

Catalan lawmakers cited European humane values in putting the first ban on bullfighting inside Spain today. But ending the ancient rite is widely seen as an opportunity in Catalonia to tout the region’s old dream of separation from Spain.

The ban on the “sport” sparked by a citizen’s petition of 180,000, passed 68 to 55 in the legislature of Catalonia in northeast Spain. It came days after the famed annual running of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona, always an ecstatic local festival though one viewed with increasing skepticism in the rest of Europe.

It also comes days after more than a million Catalonians gathered in Barcelona to protest a Madrid constitutional court ruling that Catalonia could not be defined as a nation. Animal rights groups, popular in the region, declared victory and bullfighting industry officials predicted dire effects on the economy. Spain's conservative Popular Party opposed the law and will challenge it in court.

“In spite of a vegetararian varnish over this affair, Catalonia has always seen the anti-bullfight struggle as a political issue with a nationalist undertone,” argues Salvador Boix, a political analyst with the Spanish daily El Pais.

However, Joan Puigcercos, a pro-Catalan independence politician, told reporters that “it it not a question of politics, nor of national identity, but rather about animal suffering.”

Bullfighting in Spain has been declining for years, even as it lingers on powerfully in the national imagination. The spectacle of a lithe matador in his “suit of lights” facing off against the deadly horns of 1000-pound snorting bull is romanticized globally in the masculine prose of writers like Ernest Hemingway, who found the fights a metaphor for honor, struggle, and relations between the sexes in works like “Death in the Afternoon.”

But bullfights have undergone some de-mythologizing. Studies depict them as ghoulish struggles in which a bull with horns shaved to make them less dangerous perishes after a prolonged encounter and multiple stab wounds. In the past 20 years no matadors have died in Spanish bullfights, putting the honorable outcome of a “contest” between man and beast more in the framework of professional wrestling.

"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," a Catalan member of parliament, Josep Rull, told Reuters today.

Catalonia, with its seaport Barcelona, has long been one of the more cosmopolitan and industrialized regions in Spain; it has retained a proud cultural and linguistic tradition, and a sense of somehow being “other” in Spain, often in opposition to Madrid -- where bullfighting remains much more popular. Catalonia was a stronghold of the Spanish republican left, immortalized in George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” – which brought it suppression by the Franco dictatorship.

After today’s Catalan vote, Claire Staronzinski, part of a French anti-bullfighting league, described it as “a symbolic vote that foretells what is going to happen in France in several years…It shows …. an anti-bullfight feeling…including in our own country.”

AP/Christian Science Monitor

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5846669,00.html

Opinion | 28.07.2010
Opinion: Catalan ban on bullfighting was the logical conclusion

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:

The autonomous government for the Catalan region of Spain has banned bullfighting. Deutsche Welle's editor-in-chief, Marc Koch, thinks it's the right decision, but believes it's motivated by politics, not morality.

You hardly need be a passionate animal rights advocate to reject bullfighting. In this supposed duel between man and beast, the 'corrida', the bull never has a chance. It's tortured in a bestial, meaningless manner, until the matador puts it out of its misery with a reasonably adept stroke of his blade.

The long-standing rumors persist that the animals are either manipulated with medication or have their horns filed down, as organizers try to limit the risks for the matadors.

Marc KochBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Marc Koch is DW's editor-in-chief

It would be cynical to describe this spectacle as a quintessential piece of Spanish culture. Bullfighting, in its current form, has only been around since the end of the eighteenth century. While breeders and matadors say they honor the animals and secure the breed's continued survival, it's hard to overlook their personal motives – at the end of the day, a bullfighting ban puts them out of a job.

In this sense, the Catalan government has made the correct decision, banning bullfighting from 2012 on. But still, it leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. If you look closely at the result of the vote, you see that members of the nationalist Catalan party voted overwhelmingly in favor of the ban.

That makes it less of a vote against bullfighting, and more of a vote against Spain; the local politicians decided not to include a ban on the Catalan tradition of bull running, or 'correbous', in the legislation. Bulls are very rarely killed in these bull runs, but neither are they treated humanely.

This bullfighting ban can be clearly interpreted as a regional response to a recent Spanish constitutional court verdict limiting the autonomy of the Catalan regional government.

What's more, the lofty, passionate debates on a bullfighting ban were totally over the top: La Monumental - the last major arena in Barcelona with a capacity of 20,000 - only sold 400 season tickets this year, and it's rarely full nowadays. In 2009, only 18 'corridas' took place there, clearly signaling that most people are no longer interested in the bloody spectacle. For this reason, a complete ban was just the next logical step.

Marc Koch is Deutsche Welle's editor-in-chief. (msh)
Editor: Rob Turner

http://www.treehugger.com/bullfighting-ban-spain-gruesome.jpg

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/07/28/128817532/bullfighting-banned-in-...

NPR -

Bullfighting Banned In Spanish Province

08:38 am

July 28, 2010

by Korva Coleman

Anti-bullfighting activists protest outside a Barcelona bullfighting ring on Sunday, July 18, 2010.
Manu Fernandez/AP

Lawmakers in Catalonia, Spain, have voted to outlaw bullfighting, starting in 2012. Opponents denounced the longtime Spanish custom as cruel, while supporters insisted ending it will damage Spanish culture. The vote may be more about politics than bullfighting, since the Catalonian region has only one bullring and about 15 bullfights a year. Some Catalonians are calling for even greater independence from Spain and say the bullfighting ban shows they're willing to break from Spanish tradition.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/28/spains-catalonia-region-bans-bullfighting/

Spain's Catalonia Region Bans Bullfighting
By: Megan Friedman (8 hours ago)

Catalonia Bullfighting Ban

REUTERS/Susana Vera/TIME Magazine

In a victory for animal-rights activists — and a blow for those who said it was central to Spanish culture — Spain's Catalonia region voted to formally ban bullfighting.

Bullfighting had already been on the decline in the region, according to the New York Times. Though the region once held some of the first bullfighting matches, its main city of Barcelona now only has one bullring which only had 4,000 season ticket holders. In Madrid, Spain's capital, the city's main ring attracts 19,000 season ticket holders.

The activists who brought the anti-bullfighting petition to parliament said they would work to spread similar legislation elsewhere in Spain. However, many Spanish citizens believe bullfighting is a national symbol and a major tourist draw and should not be outlawed.

Today, 7:14:51 AM

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/28/spains-catalonia-region-bans-bullfighting/#i...

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/catalan-bullfight-ban-raises-debate...

Catalan bullfight ban raises debate in Latin America

Bullfighting supporters in Latin America slammed Wednesday's decision by Catalonia to ban the tradition, while animal rights groups hoped it would boost their bids to stop it, too.

By voting to ban bullfighting from January 1, 2012, Catalonia became the first region in mainland Spain to outlaw the centuries-old tradition.

Parts of Latin America do not maintain the tradition either.

But across the region, crowds still attend bullfights, which date back to Spanish colonization, from Mexico which has the world's largest bullring, to Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Spanish, French and Portuguese bullfighters also travel to the region for bullfights in winter.

The Catalan parliament vote against bullfighting was "more anti-Spanish than anti-bullfight," said Michel Lagravere, the father of Franco-Mexican child bullfighting star Michelito.

"It's really sad, it's unthinkable to make bans which are worthy of the (Spanish) Inquisition, especially since it's a political, anti-Spanish decision," said the former French bullfighter who lives in southeast Mexico.

Peruvian bullfighting analyst and commentator Bartolome Puigros agreed with Spanish conservatives who said the vote was about asserting Catalonia's regional identity for nationalist reasons.

"Those who banned it are complete idiots. What's happening is that there are some separatists in Catalonia," Puigros told AFP.

In Colombia, bullfighting writer Victor Diusaba said it was a political decision, but he noted that it took place in a region where bullfighting was not particularly popular.

"Support for bullfighting is still healthy in the rest of Spain," Diusaba said.

But anti-bullfighting activism is on the rise, even in Mexico where the capital's La Monumental bullring can host more than double that of Las Ventas in Madrid.

An attempt to introduce bullfights in Uruguay, for example, saw only eight fights between 1910 and 1912, until former president Jose Batlle y Ordonez, the grandson of Catalan immigrants, banned them.

Mexican animal rights defenders welcomed Wednesday's decision as a "world success," said Gustavo Larios, president of the Mexican anti-bullfight organization.

"It's the result of international work which gives us a lot of hope," Larios said.

The Catalan move also boosted the anti-bullfighting campaign in Colombia, where the constitutional court is next week due to take a stand on bullfighting.

"If Spain can (ban it), Colombia can too. No more cruelty in that 'sport' from the era of barbarians," wrote a reader of Colombian daily El Tiempo.

But 92-year-old Mexican bullfighting journalist Ernesto Navarrete Salazar, also known as Don Neto, said it would carry on.

"It's impossible that bullfighting, which began in Crete and has resonated for centuries until today, will disappear," Salazar told AFP.

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/ap_bullfighting_080314_ssh.jpg