Many of those who want to ban the spectacle "keep birds in cages and dogs in tiny apartments, cutting their tails and nails and curbing their animal identity", he claims.
How dangerous is bullfighting? However, he accepts bullfighting could be made more humane, by using an electric prong instead of a dagger to finish off a defeated bull when the sword has not worked correctly. Then there is the fighting of calves, young bulls often under a year old, which have no long horns to keep amateur and child bullfighters at bay, an activity frequently denounced by Pacma.
A world away from the lithe movements of a matador and the banderillero, who sinks barbed sticks into the sprinting bull's shoulders, millions of Spaniards take part in rowdy bull-running events such as Pamplona's world-famous San Fermin festival.
Such activities have largely escaped efforts to protect bulls from possible mistreatment. Weighing up the risks at the running of the bulls. The Catalan ban on bullfighting allowed for the continuation of local running festivals -"correbous" - including a typical Catalan variant in which the animals have flaming torches attached to their horns.
Pacma has also called for a ban on events such as the "bous a la mar" festival in Denia on the Costa Blanca, where bulls are baited on the harbour wall until they leap into the Mediterranean.
The battle for the future of bullfighting extends far beyond Spain. There have been animal rights protests in Colombia, Peru and Mexico. And last month the mayors of France's six bullfighting towns complained to the national government about pressure from campaigners.
With Spain so divided over bullfighting, neighbouring Portugal may have hit on a non-lethal answer to the problem. There, a mounted bullfighter uses horsemanship skills to plant "bandarilhas" which only wound the animal's shoulders before a group of men wrestle the bull to a standstill. In Portugal the bull survives.
In Spain it is bullfighting itself that faces extinction. Matador killed by bull in Spain. Four well-known matadors will attend the fight, which will begin at local time GMT. The country's constitution protects bullfighting as a part of Spain's "national heritage. Bullfighting in some form or other has existed in Spain since at least Roman times, and the most typical current format involving a bullfighter with a cape and sword took its definitive shape in the 18th Century.
Fighters can be awarded the bull's ears, tail or hooves as a trophy. Hundreds of bullfights are still held every year in Spain, but the numbers are falling. As well as the Canary Islands, Catalonia has also taken steps to ban the tradition. Opponents describe the blood-soaked pageants as barbaric, while fans say the tradition is deeply rooted in national history.
Catalonia stages last bullfight. Another point of contention stems from the fact that the ban did not apply to all bull—related events.
Regardless of this debate, bullfights could technically still take place in Catalonia right now. In , a law was passed in Spain declaring bullfighting to be part of all Spaniards' common historical and cultural heritage. Then, in , Spain's Constitutional Court overturned the Catalan Parliament ban, arguing the chamber had overstepped its authority.
According to the court, only Spain has authority over things considered to be part of the country's cultural heritage.
There still haven't been any bullfights in Catalonia since for a number of social, cultural, and financial reasons. If anything, Catalonia seems to be heading towards putting an end to 'correbous' — with evergrowing calls for them to stop after recent incidents — than to bringing back bullfights.
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