Spain's two biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, have become involved in a debate about the place of bullfighting in Spanish culture, according to this article in The Daily Telegraph: Spanish bullfighting should be given UNESCO protection.
Officials in Madrid have been championing the cause of bullfighting aficionados, claiming that the 'art', which has inspired the likes of Picasso and Hemingway, should be officially protected, while the Catalans in Barcelona have called the act 'inadmissible torture' and have called for it to be banned.
A local philosopher, Jesus Mosterin, stood before the Catalan parliament and went so far as to liken bullfighting to "the primitive and abominable custom" of female circumcision.
But at the heart of the debate are concerns that matter much more to Catalans than the brutal killing of innocent animals - namely, the 'independence' of Catalonia from Spain. It is suggested that bullfighting is Spanish, not Catalan, and that Catalonia loves animals more than the rest of Spain does. Anti-bullfighting campaigners in Catalonia find it impossible to separate the direct aim of their political cause from their wider nationalistic pride. (As indeed, do most subversive political groups in Catalonia. Catalonia's communist party has a hammer and sickle on a Catalan flag, the irony of which has been lost on any Catalan communist I've tried explaining it to). Can their animal rights sentiments be taken seriously when seen in such a light?
What do you think of the stance of the Catalans? Is it acceptable to kill bulls in the name of tradition? And even if we accept that it isn't, is it worth wasting so much political energy on saving a few thousand bulls when far more animals die in more brutal ways in substandard slaughterhouses throughout Spain and the rest of the world? And what of Mosterin's comments - does he trivialize the plight of women in developing countries simply to justify his own nationalistic fervour? Leave your comments below.
- Bullfighting in Spain Where can you see a bullfight in Spain?
- Bullfighting - the Issues at Stake What are the arguments for and against bullfighting?
- Madrid or Barcelona? Which should you visit?
There are three possible stances to this – people who think killing animals in the name of art is evil, those who think it’s completely fine, and those who probably think it’s not that great, but they’ve really got better things to do with their lives than waste their time dealing with such a trivial cause.
I’d rather look after the disadvantaged women and children (hell, let’s include the men too) before I fuss about animals. And even then, there are worse acts of animal cruelty in the world than in Spanish bullfighting.
Killing animals is wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong !
Veganism is the only way.
Our entertainment cannot be based upon an animal’s suffering. The moral progress of the catalan people has made it possible to gather enough signatures to officially ask the Parliament to consider a ban. It is time for the government to listen to the message of compassion for animals of the society.
“The moral progress of the catalan people”
You make me want to puke! And you wonder why people hate the f???ing Catalans!
Nuria, please shut up. It is people like you that give Catalans a bad name.
Anaïs (from Barcelona, CATALONIA)
I think it great that Madrid is saving bullfighting. Everyone leftwinger would have all cultural events abolished in favor of use holding hands and singing “we are the world.” Get over it, i suppose killing an animal while driving should carry a life sentence? Sorry, did not mean to give anyone new ideas to restrict life.
The Catalan’s political maturity leaves a lot to be desired.
It is so archaic to argue for independence in the modern Europe. It’s like saying “I want the right to march my sheep through Madrid (Oh, they do! Just shows – the spanish and the catalans are the same).
It is all about money for the Catalans. And even then they are wrong! It is much more expensive to run a country than a region. Catalonia claims to be a net contributante to the Spanish economy – ff Catalonia was its own country and had to run an army, the roads and everything else that being a country entails, they would soon see where all the money goes.
Catalan nationalism is just fascism in disguise. Idiots.
…except not in the case of Spain.
The anti-bullfighting cause is not a left-wing cause in Spain. It is a nationalism cause, and nationalism is right wing.
It is right wing v right wing.
Why such a simple question as “Bullfights: yes or no?” is taken to a different ground such as nationalism?
The spaniards are being more nationalistic than anyone protecting such a horrible tradition and attacking those who oppose it with stupid arguments as catalan nationalism. Catalans haven’t taken this stance it has been the spanish media and the spanish politicians.
Also, comparing the need of food with a brutal tradition that consists in torturing and killing an animal is just plain stupid.
Spain and its people have no respect, not just for animals, but for other peoples cultures, languages and traditions. Intolerance is in the heart of the majority of the spanish people. They don’t understand what democracy means yet.
Joan, I’m guessing from your name that you are Catalan – so you must surely have seen the Catalan flags that are flown at every anti-bullfighting campaign.
I’m not Spanish and I don’t believe what the Spanish media says. I’ve seen this with my own eyes.
Apart from that, you are right – the Spanish are just as nationalistic as the Catalans. While non-Spaniards argue against Catalonia’s little dream on sound economic and political grounds, the Spanish tend only to argue against it on nationalistic grounds. Fighting fire with fire. It’s silly, but it doesn’t make either side right.
There is simply no difference between the mindset of the Catalans and the Spanish.
Someone should put them all in the same country!
I went to a couple bullfights during my time in Madrid. They were interesting, but I would prefer to see the nonlethal corridas, like what they do in Valencia.
I’m not Spanish, so I can’t dictate what they do, but that’s my preference. I say this as an aficionado of all things Spanish.
Incidentally, to previous commenters: claiming moral progress over your opponents is NOT the way to persuade someone about your argument.
“A people should be judged by the way they treat their animals”. GANDHI.
If Catalans do not want to kill, with suffering, a bull why Spanish fascism should force them to do it?.
I think that it is good that people are finally talking about this sickness in your country. I have never understood what kind of people want to see something like that and even pay for that. I don´t want to have anything to do with people like that. I think it is a big shame for your country and you should all be fighting to stop torturing animals, it is year 2010! In my opinion those matadors and people who support this, should be chased and killed the same way as the bulls. They don´t deserve nothing more.
As a child I was greatly interested in bullfighting and wanted to become a matador myself. One day I understood all of a sudden what it was all about, and began to regard it as something very evil. However, I don’t feel that it should be banned just because it appears wrong to me, without considering the tastes and likes of others. I am not Spanish or Catalan, and political issues in the peninsula are of no concern to me.
When young people go to a bullfight, they are seeing a form of torture legitimised and celebrated by their family, other adults and representatives of the state; in this way, they can start to believe that it is acceptable to treat their fellow beings with violence, without thinking that they need to questions those beliefs themselves.
But of course having these celebrations of humans’ domination over animals in a grand public display does not make them worse than one animal being murdered in a back-street slaughterhouse.
The numbers of animals is irrelevant; to inflict suffering on other beings is immoral.
I like this blog very much because I can find out information about Barcelona in here.
Bullfighting is cruel and torturous for the bull. They are starved, tortured and weakened prior to the ‘fight’ – if not, then too many matadors would die, and who wants to watch that? I don’t understand why people want to watch animals being tortured and killed in the name of sport. It isn’t even fair sport. It’s worse than cock fighting and dog fighting because the bull is maimed before the fight, and those two ‘sports’ are illegal in many parts of the world. So should bull fighting be made illegal. I hope the Catalan’s win their fight to ban bullfighting in Barcelona.
Lydia, really!?
Yours Truly,
Adele
o leary insurance
It isnt a political issue. It is inhumane end of story. Why does Madrid try to push its customs on Catalunya??? The bullring has been demolished and wasnt well attended anyway.
Idependence isnt needed in the new europe?? Really. Tell that to the Scots,Welsh,Basques,. Why was Andorra allowed to become its own country but Catalunya which was a country not a kingdom not allowed????
So, because Catalonia is trying to have a barbaric, horrendous [ you are kidding yourself if you think bullfighting is art. Not everything Hemingway said is true] practice banned, its bad? Way to go, Spain. You make India [ where I come from] good.