(eca104): Catalonia bullfight ban divides Spaniards (News Feature)

By Sinikka Tarvainen Jul 28, 2010, 13:51 GMT

Madrid/Barcelona - When prosperous Catalonia became the first part of mainland Spain to ban bullfighting on Wednesday, it sent a powerful signal to the rest of the country.

Namely, that bullfights are not an intrinsic and untouchable part of Spanish identity, but a form of animal abuse which can be abolished.

That was the message sent out by the 135-member regional parliament when it voted to approve a ban proposed by animal rights activists.

Spain's Canary Islands had already outlawed bullfights back in 1991, as part of a more general animal protection law, but that decision had gone largely unnoticed - the Catalan move, however, has ignited discussion and divided opinion across the rest of the country.

Movie director Agustin Diaz Yanes described it as a 'cultural tragedy' whilst anti-bullfighting activists hailed it as sending 'a message of progress to humanity.'

The Catalan decision takes place against a background of increased separatist feelings in the region of 7.5 million people, after Spain's Constitutional Court trimmed its autonomy rights.

Bullfighting opponents were forced to reject claims by conservatives that Catalonia wanted to abolish corridas - the Spanish word for bullfights - because it was a symbol of Spanishness.

'We are not talking about identities here, but about very serious ethical arguments against the ill-treatment of animals,' said Jordi Portabella from the leftist separatist party ERC.

Bullfights have traditionally been regarded as an important part of Spanish culture, and more than 11,000 bulls are killed annually.

Fans say the spectacle pits the intelligence of the human being against the brute force of the beast.

Bullfighting also has an economic side to consider, with an annual turnover of nearly 1.5 billion euros (1.9 billion dollars) and gives direct or indirect employment to around 200,000 people.

However, less than 27 per cent of Spaniards were interested in bullfighting in 2006, according to one poll - down from 38 per cent in 1999.

Bullfighting had long been on the decline in Catalonia, where the capital Barcelona declared itself an 'anti-bullfight' city in 2004, and dozens of other municipalities followed suit.

Two of Barcelona's three bullrings were closed down, leaving the Monumental as Catalonia's only bullring to still stage corridas on a regular basis.

The anti-bullfighting group Prou ('Enough' in Catalan) collected 180,000 signatures to request the ban which parliament then agreed to consider.

The Catalonia debate then spread to Madrid, where in response conservative regional Prime Minister Esperanza Aguirre announced that her region would declare corridas a part of its cultural heritage.

Animal rights activists retaliated by asking the Madrid regional parliament to discuss a Catalan-style ban.

But the bullfighting question has turned out to be complex, with intellectuals and artists taking sides both for and against.

Corridas 'represent a form of spiritual and emotional nourishment as intense and enriching as a concert by Beethoven, (or) a comedy by Shakespeare,' Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa wrote.

Bullfighting inspired the likes of painter Pablo Picasso and poet Federico Garcia Lorca, he argued, describing it as a 'sign of identity' for much of the Spanish-speaking world.

Bullfighting fans also stress the healthy life of the Iberian fighting bulls, which are raised in environmentally-friendly sanctuaries measuring a total of 400,000 hectares, and which would be closed if corridas were abolished.

Animal rights campaigners, on the other hand, stress the suffering of the bull, which gets long darts pushed into its body before the matador finally kills it with a sword - often after several failed attempts.

Bulls are herbivores which prefer to flee rather than fight, philosopher Jesus Mosterin wrote.

Critics also condemn bullfights as a cowardly bloodsport which leaves the animal no chance to defend itself. Matadors do get gored, but it is very rare for them to get killed by bulls.

The controversy is expected to continue even in Catalonia, where Spain's main opposition conservative People's Party (PP) has announced possible parliamentary or legal initiatives in order to overturn the ban.

Trying to prohibit bullfights was like prohibiting football, conservative representative Juan Manuel Albendea quipped - an ominous joke in a country which has just won the football World Cup.