Bullfighting eventually forbidden in Catalonia

Finally the well-known world-wide barbarian Spanish tradition of bullfighting has come to its end in Catalonia. The Catalan Parliament banned the spectacle in  July 2010 after 180,000 signatures were collected for a petition. The law will take effect from January 2012, which means that today's "corridas" taken in Barcelona will be the last ones.

Whereas the majority of Catalans support this decision,  a minority claims for the right of freedom to torture bulls to death. Specially, the Spanish ultranationalist parties "Ciudadanos" and "Partido Popular" have tried to prevent the ban from being effective, arguing the ban is yet another attempt of Catalan nationalist parties to remove any trace of the Spanish culture out from the Catalan society.

Bullfighting in Catalonia has been a declining interest during the last 30 years. This is not true for the rest of Spain though, where bullfighting is very active (specially in the south region of Andalusia) and where this tradition has its own TV programs as well.

As a Catalan, I am happy with this ban because I have never identified myself with this old-age tradition in which men dressed up as Christmas trees and with cocky behaviour slowly torture a bull that eventually dies drowned in its own blood. Bullfighting supporters try to defend this abhorrent show by saying that many animals are killed in slaughterhouses everyday... Well, of course we need killing animals for food, but a bull in a bullfighting show is tortured for about 20-30 minutes before dying: the "torero" sticks "banderillas" (some sort of colorfully sharpen sticks) to the bull's back; one after another. While the bull bleeds, it tries to attack the "torero" who dodges the bull. This is repeated several times until the bull is completely exhausted. Then, the "torero" sinks a long sword into the bull's back cutting its lungs and finally sticks some sort of knife to the bull's cervical zone, which paralizes it completely while still being alive.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen... "Toreros" and the Spanish ultranationalist parties "Ciudadanos" and "Partido Popular" claim for people's freedom to practice this "beautiful" tradition. They even say that personalities like Goya and Picasso supported this practice as if it were an argument in favor of it. Goya and Picasso lived in past times, not in the 21st century.

Anyway I'm glad because, hopefully, no more bulls will be tortured to death in my country from now on.

Spanish bullfighting banned in Catalonia.