While peculiar traditions that form part of local celebrations raise the ire of many animal rights protestors, the national fiesta, as bullfighting is affectionately known, remains a highly contentious subject - both in Spain and abroad.

A Gallup poll carried out in 2006 revealed that 72.1 percent of Spaniards said that they had no interest whatsoever in entertainment involving bulls - a significant fall from 1999, when 38 percent of Spaniards said they were interested.

Perhaps not surprisingly, 78.5 percent of the respondents in the recent poll were women, while 81.7 percent were of the younger generation, being aged between 15 and 24 years old.

This rejection of bullfighting is something that is being reflected by the actions of the authorities in areas of the country where it finds less support.

Take Catalonia, for example, which now bans under-16s from forming part of the audience. "Parents have the right to educate their children," said Nicolas Biscaye of the Société Protectrice des Animaux.

"The problem is that minors are not able to properly decide whether they should attend a spectacle that is based on killing an animal. This activity is not a reflection of civilisation - it is barbarism."

TV bullfights
But opponents of bullfighting say that simply preventing children from going into bullrings is not enough, and that corridas should not be shown on television during the day.

"How can it be a good thing for a child to be allowed to watch an event that consists of mistreating an animal; where people enjoy the pain inflicted on the beast, and bray for more blood?" asked Theo Oberhuber of the NGO Ecologists in Action.

Furthermore, say aficionados, around 1,000 farms dedicated exclusively to rearing fighting bulls currently occupy around 400,000 hectares in Spain. Banning bullfighting would expose the land to speculators.

But Joan Herrera, a former Catalan Green Party deputy, dismisses arguments about bullfighting's contribution to the Spanish economy.

To ban or not to ban: A ban on bullfighting would have far-reaching effects on Spanish culture and economy.

"That old argument about how a ban would hit jobs is untrue," he said, adding that the sector would need to undergo the same kind of reconstruction that other industries have. "You only have to ask farmers in Andalusia about how unproductive it is to give so much land over to the raising of bulls," he says.

As is often the case in debates that attract extreme positions, anyone who tries to be objective is likely to find themselves under attack.

Former Madrid youth ombudsman Javier Urra said that after commissioning a study on the effect of bullfighting on children, "I was insulted in the street, and sometimes even refused service in certain bars."

12 March 2009

David Fernandez / El Pais / Expatica