Catalonia, Spain (includes Barcelona) considers bullfight ban

There is promising news from Spain today. The June 22 edition of London's Daily Telegraph (pg 20) reports, "Catalonia moves to abolish bullfighting."

The article opens:
"Catalonia's parliament is poised today to take the first step to abolishing bullfighting throughout the autonomous region in north-eastern Spain....

"Barcelona, the capital of the region, declared itself "an anti-bullfighting city" two years ago following a series of public protests and a petition of more than 250,000 names.

"Another 22 Catalan municipalities followed suit. Despite these public declarations the bullrings can be closed only by a change of the law, a process that ERC, the pro-independence party of the republican Left, will initiate today with a motion to amend existing animal cruelty legislation, from which bullfighting is currently exempt."

And we read:
"The motion is thought to have the majority of support in the parliament, not least because it is seen as a means to assert Catalonia's independence from Madrid, the Spanish capital, where the sport remains highly popular."

You'll find the whole article on line at http://tinyurl.com/g67wk

You can respond with a letter to the Daily Telegraph at dtletters [at] telegraph.co.uk

Or use the information in letters to your local papers on the world's changing attitudes with regard to animal cruelty as human entertainment, for example when your papers cover circuses or rodeos.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)