Catalonia's parliament has voted to ban bullfighting. Supporters of bullfighting argue that it is an important tradition that should be preserved while opponents say it is outdated and barbaric. Do you think bullfighting should be banned? Are you in Spain? Have you ever witnessed a bullfight? Your views please
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10798210
MADRID — Top Spanish bullfighting entrepreneurs vowed Thursday to take Catalonia's parliament to court to try to reverse its decision to ban the bloodsport and stop other regions from following their lead.
"We are going to launch a huge battle" against this "outrageous" measure, promoter Luiz Alvarez, a founder of the bullfighting lobby group Mesa del Toro, told AFP.
Catalonia's regional parliament on Wednesday voted to ban bullfighting from January 1, 2012.
It would thus become the first region in mainland Spain to outlaw the centuries-old tradition, which has inspired artists from Goya to Picasso.
But Alvarez said the ban was unconstitutional: he insisted that the wealthy northeastern region did not have the right to abolish bullfights, but only to regulate them.
The lobby group would go to court in a bid to reverse the Catalan parliament's decision in court, he added.
"We will use all the tools available to us by the law because not everything is lost," Mesa del Toro spokesman Eduardo Martin-Penato told radio Onda Cero
Culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde said that bullfighting "falls within the framework of art" in an interview with radio Cadena Ser Thursday.
"Of course bullfighting is culture," she added.
Catalonia, which has its own language and a strong nationalist movement, has followed the lead of the Canary Islands, which outlawed bullfighting in 1991
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5je8lSqeR3TADqGl0aFjmJN9LpCBQ
I have reservations about banning anything purely because some people don't agree with it. I've chosen not to attend bullfights in Spain. I don't find the whole concept entertaining. The same with greyhound racing and other "sport".
AntwortenLöschenHaving said that, it's a personal choice. Why should I think my personal views on the subject are any more valid than anyone else's?
Hemingway obviously saw bullfighting as an art form which he described quite poetically in Fiesta. I respect that view regardless of the fact that I don't happen to share it.
No, I don't agree with the ban.
Enrique Ponce, one of Spain’s leading bullfighters, had no doubts:
AntwortenLöschen“This is a battle for Catalan nationalism. It is an attack on Spain
, and it smells of dictatorship. Personally, I have no doubt that
Catalonia is part of Spain, just like Valencia, Andalucia or Extremadura.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0729/1224275693705.html
good article in the Irish times .... Ilived for a year in Barcelona , found bullfights really slow and tedious
In a clear provocation to its great rival Barcelona
AntwortenLöschenSpain's capital city of Madrid has officially elevated
bullfighting to the status of a protected art form,
as matadors, philosophers and politicians become
embroiled in a furious dispute over the country's
bloody but emblematic sport.
I think any and all sports which might evenn verge on barbaric should be redesigned along the lines of the American electoral process, and combatants replaced with vocal Conservatives and Liberals - and then money should be sprinkled from the sky as the players are forced to debate social issues.
AntwortenLöschenof course yes. I think they should have done this before, but anyway I am relieved by hearing this; finally people started to consider banning this inhuman sport.
AntwortenLöschenBullfighting in Spain
So far I think its only banned in Catalonia ... It was never part of Catalonian culture.
AntwortenLöschenNot sure if there have been any developements since this was posted though.
Many Spaniards see it as an art .The stadiums of Madrid and Andalusia are filled with fans . I am not a fan .... at all