Is this the beginning of the end for bullfighting?
Anyone who has seen footage of the barbaric and anachronistic “sport” known as bullfighting (as if the bull has any 
fighting chance whatsoever) will be delighted to know that, in at least one part of Spain, bullfighting has finally been banned. In doing so, the parliament of Catalonia becomes the first mainland region of the country to ban an activity that anti-bullfighting activists have long called brutal and inhumane. José Ramón Mallén, a representative of Fundación Equanimal, an animal rights organization, said “This is not about politics and Catalan identity, but about ethics and showing that it’s simply wrong to enjoy watching an animal getting killed in public.”
Of course, some see the vote as a political statement by a wealthy and powerful region that likes to assert how different it is from the rest of Spain, rather than an expression of concern over cruelty. Nonetheless, it’s good news as far as I’m concerned and we can only hope that this will be a catalyst for similar bans or restrictions in other parts of Spain. In a released statement, the World Society for the Protection of Animals has pledged it “will continue to push hard for European Union condemnation of the practice,” which “goes against the European Union’s stance on animal welfare.”
The time is long overdue.
