Spain's bullfighting tradition goes into decline

By Sinikka Tarvainen Jan 5, 2007, 8:09 GMT

Madrid - Most people cannot imagine Spain without bullfights, but there are growing signs that the country's centuries- old 'fiesta nacional' (national celebration) is on the decline.

Not only are young people losing interest in the glittering and bloody spectacle, but even some of the authorities are beginning to feel embarrassed about an 'art' which foreign animal rights campaigners blast as a form of torture.

When a matador donning his 'suit of lights' bravely confronts death in the form of a 500-kilo fighting bull, spectators witness 'the last great art of the western world,' playwright Albert Boadilla wrote recently.

Bullfighting 'has survived miraculously since antiquity against all political correctness,' he added.

Artists such as the late US author Ernest Hemingway and the painter Pablo Picasso were fans of bullfighting, without which Spain would lose something essential to its profound character, bullfighting enthusiasts feel.

Bullfighting is also a big industry, which employs some 200,000 people - from bull breeders to bullfighters' assistants - and turns over about 1.5 billion euros (nearly 2 billion dollars) a year.

Around 12,000 bulls are killed in 2,000 annual corridas in the country where top matadors are celebrities comparable to movie stars.

The fierce Iberian fighting bulls - a race which would disappear without bullfights - are raised on spacious ecological pastures which industrial farm animals can't even dream of, bullfighting fans point out.

Despite such arguments, the popularity of bullfighting is clearly declining among Spaniards, 72 per cent of whom have no interest in the spectacle, up from 43 per cent in 1971, according to a recent poll.

Among young people, the figure rose to 82 per cent and among women, to 78.5 per cent. The typical bullfighting public now consists of elderly men.

A decade ago, young 'showman' matadors such as Jesulin de Ubrique sought to renovate the spectacle with new techniques and novelties such as corridas only for women, but their impact was short-lived.

At the same time, consciousness of animal rights is on the rise in the country traditionally fond of bloodsports ranging from cockfights to hurling live goats from church towers.

Bullfights tarnish Spain's image in the European Union, Environment Minister Cristina Narbona pointed out recently, proposing Portuguese-style corridas in which the bull is not killed in front of the spectators.

Narbona's comments sparked an instant storm, with even leaders of her own Socialist Party rushing to defend the bullfighting tradition.

Some animal rights campaigners observed that the bull, which bleeds from darts stuck into its neck during the bullfight, suffers even more in Portugal, where it faces an agonizing wait before being finished off in a slaughterhouse.

The only Spanish region to have reduced bullfights so far is northeastern Catalonia, where the capital Barcelona and some 20 other municipalities have declared themselves 'anti-bullfight.'

Barcelona's last bullring is so unprofitable that the company managing it intends to give up the business next year.

Catalonia's dislike of bullfights, however, is also attributed to separatist strivings in the region, which seeks to distance itself from things seen as typically Spanish.