Spain Debates a Ban on Bullfighting
It's bloody, anachronistic, not terribly profitable and a joke to many young Spaniards. But Spanish bullfighting — which usually ends with the ritualized public killing of the bull — persists to this day. Many residents of Spain's northeasternmost region, Catalonia, have long wanted to ban bullfighting because the fascist Franco regime promoted it so heavily as a sign of patriotism. Over the past couple of decades, animal-rights activists have joined the Catalonian cause, and now bullfighting is poised to end in that region. In November, actress Brigitte Bardot wrote a letter to the Catalonian government asking it to extend the prohibition on public execution of animals to bulls, which are the only exemption to the law. She called bullfighting an "incredibly sadistic spectacle." The Catalonian parliament is scheduled to vote on a bullfighting ban in December, and many in Spain expect it will pass.