Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN’S constitutional court has overturned a ban on bullfighting in Catalonia, declaring it unconstitutional.
The court argued that bullfighting is part of Spanish heritage and that any decision on banning it must only be made by central government.
Catalonia banned the bloody sport in 2010, claiming it was incompatible with the region’s tradition.
Animal rights activists will now be concerned that the precedent set could see bans in other regions reversed.
The Canary Islands were the first to ban the tradition, while the Balearic Islands and several Spanish municipalities are currently debating doing the same.
The move to overturn Catalonia’s ban is likely inspire those who are already calling for the region’s independence from Spain.
If you enjoy watching animals being tortured to death then you are sick – there is something wrong with you, mentally.
So, if things that are part of Spain’s heritage are automatically okay, will they be dropping all those corruption investigations?
Or will they investigate the Spanish Constitutional Court to see how much it took in backhanders from the bullfighting lobby?
The ‘real Spaniard’ should accept aggression and truculence as core cultural values because that is part of ‘the Spanish way’, which includes, as well, bribes, prebendas, fraud and the rejection of civil rights, if those rights would impede corporate profits.
Clearly bullfighting is not ‘part of Spanish heritage’ as evidenced by Catalan, Balearic and Canarian popular rejection. Nor is it popular in other parts of Spain, not even in many cattle herding regions.
Those elites clinging to Spain’s legacy, anachronistic undemocratic worldview will insist that their own ‘cultural’ concept is best, especially, since bullfighting still generates money for the cartel that controls.
But this ruling is mostly about denying autonomy to Catalunya.
Disgraceful high-handed bullying. Spain’s national shame laid bare. One more reason for Catalunya to push for independence.
The separatists are not guided for the love to the animals . They are guided for the hatred to Spain, and their repulse to the bullfighting is framed in a strategy for to strip Catalonia of the part of his cultural heritage that not fits with their demential allucinations. A step forward for these fanatics is the expulsion by boycott of all the people not disposed to undergo their tirany as happened,some decades ago, with an artist called Boadella, who dared to denounce in his magistral theater play (Ubu Rey) the activities of Pujol.
I am against the bullfights, but I think that this rejection must not be employed hypocritically as a politic weapon.
the backward Spanish go even further backward…its just what you would expect from these corrupt followers of animal cruelty……..such a backward nation….!!!!
Jack Daww said: “the backward Spanish”, “such a backward nation”.
Those are the kinds of statements and attitudes contributing to ‘expat’ unpopularity among Spanish and Brits alike’. Cruelty and corruption are to be condemned, but lets not throw the baby out with the bath water.
The swans will sing when the jackdaws are silent.
are you an inferior Spanish by any chance Chas….you talk nonsense
No doubt Spanish people and foreign residents recognize the value of your social acuity and are left without adequate words to express their appreciation for your insights.
I think Spain is a wonderful place, peopled with fascinating, kind and warm types. I have lived in Spain (Madrid and Almería) for most of my life and have always enjoyed the way of life here. Some of the more acute British readers may have noticed that it is noticeably different here from the UK.
That would be, I am convinced, a bloody good thing!
You missed out one massive flaw Lenox. The Spanish predilection for torturing animals. Apart from that, yes lovely people, if a bit thick, they’ve just accepted Robin Hood in reverse (again!) as boss.
Well, at least they have avoided the massive suicide of the Brexit (talking about thick’). I’ll take Spain over the UK any day.
The bullfightingh not pursues to cause pain to the bull. It pursues the killing of the bull, with the risk of the torero. The bull is considerated as incapable of to experiment suffering, and the torero as a man whom to admire and whose life is totally expendable.
Is that your version of irony Anselmo? Or do you really believe bulls feel no pain? Might be illuminating to consider the spears lodged in the animals’ shoulders and neck, prior to cack-handed butchery.
I am against bullfithings,precisely because i think that the bull suffer, but it is necessary to remark that the idea in wich are based these representacions is that the bulls not feel pain.Only wrath and fury. It is a fact that the public show disconformity in the ocassions in wich the bull is treated too much hardly.
With the injures that they produce to the bulls, the toreros want to provoque the fury of the bull , and this is a feature that have been increased by the mean of artificial breed since centuries ago.
What you say is part of historic old catholic thinking, that only ‘man’ is sentient with abilities to feel, suffer and be social. All that has been debunked by science and, indeed, contemporary religious thinking. To suggest that animals don’t suffer is a callous ignorant position.
Your reasoning is faulty Anselmo, as is your humanity. If the torturer only wanted to “provoke fury” the darts would be stabbed into some other part of the bulls’ anatomy.
But no, they are inserted into precisely the area best designed to weaken the animal, in order to present an easy target for old fancy-pants.
I agree with you, Im trying to say that the reason of the bullfighting is not to provoque pain to the animals. It is based in the falacy that the bulls are praticaly insensible to the pain
When an expert argues with someone who has no knowledge whatsoever about his subject, both of them will come away feeling stupid.