No Bull - Catalonia Bans Bullfighting - Win One for the Bulls!
 

Lawmakers in Catalonia Vote to Ban Bullfighting - NYTimes.com
Jul 28, 2010 ... Looking for Wedge From Spain, Catalonia Bans Bullfighting. David Ramos/Associated Press. People celebrated after the law was passed at the ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/wo...e/29spain.html -

The first part of Spain to legally ban bullfighting and even though it was part of a broader issue of autonomy from Castillian Spain nevertheless the law passed with more votes than expected - the law goes into effect in 2012

So if in Barcelona or any Catalan town and wanting to see a bloody spectacle of animal abuse do it soon.

From the article:

"general decline of bullfighting in Spain -the number of fiestas has dropped almost by 1/3 since 2007" (many after local governments withdrew support due to economic hardships)

"the decline is particularly sharp in Catalonia - Barcelona once operated three bullrings but now there is just one - La Monumental, which attracts as few as 400 season-sticket holders (compared to 15,000 in Madrid)

'barcelona now must decide what to go with La Monumnetal, one of the world's leading bullrings"

anyway Spain seems to be on the way to outlawing bullfighting, like in any civilized society.

Long live the bulls!

This is the third post on this subject Palenque ;)

Yes, some people never tire...
BTW, it was Canary Island autonomous politicians the first to ban bullfighting in their territory some 20 years ago, passing a law against bloody shows with animals; but they left out and actually protect rooster fights. Amazing, isn't it?
And in catalonia they are as well protecting other kind of shows with bulls (correbous), in which the animals are wounded, burned, blinded, and killed.
These people do not care for animals, they just want to pluck a finger in Spain's eye, and keep their privileges.

The following is from Daniel Hannan's blog on the Telegraph, UK

Catalonia’s decision to proscribe bullfights has less to do with sentiment towards animals than with regional assertiveness. Nothing wrong with that, of course: as a localist, I’m all for provinces and regions drawing up their own laws. But don’t make the mistake of extrapolating too widely, as the BBC has, from a decision based largely on Catalan particularism. Bullfighting is not in decline in the rest of Spain. Ticket sales were rising year-on-year until the downturn hit.

Tauromachy has never been as popular in Catalonia as in the rest of the peninsula. As long ago as 1931, Hemingway observed that “although bullfighting flourishes in Barcelona, it is on a fake basis because the public that attends goes as to a circus for excitement and entertainment.” Papa put this down to a difference in character: Catalans, he believed, were too mercantile and practical a people to be much interested in death. Lacking the morbidity of Castilians, they rarely understood the poetry of the rite being performed on the sands. Missing the tragedy, they saw only the gore, and so were revolted.

There may, for all I know, be something in this analysis. Certainly Catalonia has never produced a matador of the first rank. But the odd thing is that, across the border in French Catalonia, toreo is more popular then ever. True, bullfighting in France generally has enjoyed something of a renaissance over the past 15 years, but there is more to it than that. In the border villages of Rousillon, taurine festivals are drenched with Catalan imagery: folk songs, picaresque costumes, the ubiquitous red-and-gold bars of the flag. The little town of Céret now hosts one of the most important festivals of the season, its people proudly proclaiming themselves “Catalans i aficionados”.

There is a pleasing symmetry in all this. North of the Pyrenees, French Catalans celebrate bullfighting in order to flaunt their distance from Paris; south of the Pyrenees, Spanish Catalans ban it in order to flaunt their distance from Madrid. Vive la différence! ¡Viva la diferencia! Visca la diferència!

Fascinating analysis, Robert. Thank you.

PalenQ: Is it really a victory for bulls if, instead of being destined to a short life in the bull ring, as a bull, they are instead destined to an even shorter life, as a steer, before a trip to the slaughterhouse? Sounds like more hamburger for me. That reminds me--it's almost lunch time.

When I was in Barcelona,a shopkeeper pointed to a figurine of a horse and said that it is the symbol of the Catalans NOT THE BULL! She stated,with obvious dislike, that the bull is the Spanish symbol.