Why Did Bullfighting Resume In Mallorca, Spain, For The First Time In Two Years? It Must End!

Photo from CAS International

Despite the overwhelming support to end the barbaric “sport” of bullfighting, it recently returned to the Balearic Islands in Spain. The cruel spectacle, held at Mallorca’s Coliseo Balear on August 9th of this year, came in the wake of a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling that struck down legislative measures adopted by the autonomous community’s Parliament in July 2017.

Rather than explicitly banning bullfighting, the suggested amendments include restrictions on the transport, origin, age and weight of bulls, a requirement for veterinary inspections, a ban on the use of sharp instruments, a limit of 10 minutes for bulls “performing” in the ring, a ban on the slaughter of bulls, and a ban on the use of horses at bullfighting events.

Lawmakers adopted this strategy, which would make it more or less impossible to hold bullfights after the 2010 Catalan bullfighting ban was annulled by a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling. This stipulated that regions do not have the autonomous power to ban bullfighting.

“It is reprehensible that this much-disdained bloodsport is making a return to Mallorca after a two-year absence. The decision to revive the torment of bulls for public entertainment flies in the face of public opinion. It is an insult to both the Parliament of the Balearic Islands and the majority of this autonomous community’s population who strongly oppose bullfighting and did their utmost to end this anachronism,” Humane Society International’s Executive Director in Europe, Ruud Tombrock, said in a statement. “Spaniards are increasingly turning their backs on bullfighting, but, despite diminishing audiences and a decreasing number of bullfights being held, a powerful political elite doggedly continues to shore up this bloodsport by calling it part of the country’s intangible cultural heritage.”

HSI supported the Mallorca Without Blood initiative, organized by AnimaNaturalis and CAS International, which aimed to end bullfighting in the Balearic Islands, and was present at the Balearic Islands Parliament vote in July 2017.