SPAIN/FILE: Bullfighting fans will shout 'Ole' for the last time in Barcelona's Monumental bullring later on Sunday before a ban on the sport takes effect across the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia

Record ID: 374835

  • Title: SPAIN/FILE: Bullfighting fans will shout 'Ole' for the last time in Barcelona's Monumental bullring later on Sunday before a ban on the sport takes effect across the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia
  • Date: 26th September 2011
  • Summary: BARCELONA, SPAIN (SEPTEMBER 25, 2011) (REUTERS) LA MONUMENTAL BULLRING IN BARCELONA SPANISH FLAG WAVING PEOPLE QUEUING IN FRONT OF LA MONUMENTAL TOURISTS TAKING PICTURES AT LA MONUMENTAL GATE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BULLFIGHTING FAN, JUAN, SAYING: "I think it is bad, it is pitiful that they want to abolish bullfighting after so many years of
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADAORUA5HIJLWM6NEU1V3C394H
  • Story Text: Bullfighting fans gathered in front of La Monumental on Sunday (September 25) hoping to get a ticket for Barcelona's last "corrida" as five percent of the tickets are always saved for the day of the show.
    Catalonia became the first mainland Spanish region to ban bullfighting after a local parliamentary vote in June 2010 that pitted animal rights activists against fans of bullfighting. The new law comes into force in January 2012.
    The bill went to parliament after 180,000 Catalans signed a petition circulated by anti-bullfighting group Prou!, which means 'Enough' in English.
    The region became the second in Spain to ban the performance as bullfighting was made illegal in the Canary Islands in 1991, a part of Spain where bullfighting was never a tradition.
    Juan, who was born in Sevilla but has lived in Barcleona for 38 years, said he felt very sad.
    "I think it is bad, it is pitiful that they want to abolish bullfighting after so many years of tradition here and with the crowds it gathers. It is sad, it is very very sad," he told Reuters.
    Carmen, who hopes for getting bullfighting back in Catalonia if the Spanish Constitutional court decides so, was worried they would give the ring another use.
    "If they get bullfighting back we might not be able to watch it here. They might have given it (La Monumental) another use. And that is sad. We'll go to France to see what is forbidden here, as we did with Franco," she stated.
    But opponents, Marina and Laura, were happy and agreed it was a good thing.
    "I have never understood the bullfighting tradition and never will," Laura said.
    "We support this law to abolish bullfighting," her friend Marina added.
    "I respect every position but I think this is a Spanish tradition which I don't understand either because I am against violence against animals," Laura said.
    "One thing is to kill animals because you are going to eat them and a different thing is doing it because of a show," Marina said.
    At the same time, animal rights organisation AnimaNaturalis portrayed a symbolic mourning on Sunday (September 25) to bid farewell to bullfighting in Catalonia.
    Dressed in black and cheering with champagne the 20 activists celebrated the end of the centuries-old national tradition.
    "We cheer today because we are happy this is the end of bullfighting in Catalonia. But we are dressed in black because six bulls are going to die this evening in La Monumental and six other animals died yesterday. And 12.000 will be killed all over Spain in the next year at celebrations, arenas, etcetera," director of AnimaNaturalis Aida Gascon said.
    Some 20,000 spectators are expected to fill a sold-out Monumental -- the only bullring still operating in Catalonia -- for Sunday's blockbuster corrida starring celebrated Madrid "torero" Jose Tomas.
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