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Barcelona declared anti-bullfighting city
07 April 2004 Barcelona City Council has voted in favour of declaring the city anti-bullfighting. A historic move that will increase pressure on the Catalan Parliament to introduce a regional ban on the blood sport. ICABS welcomes this tremendous development and we hope that it marks the beginning of the end for bullfighting in Spain. We renew our appeal to Irish holidaymakers in Spain to please boycott the bullrings and avoid purchasing any bullfight-related souvenirs. The campaign against bullfighting in Barcelona was co-ordinated by Asociación Defensa Derechos Animal (ADDA) and the WSPA. Below is a statement issued by the Spanish group. Statement from ADDA We believe that yesterday, 6 April 2004, was a great day in favour of the animals and of all the people who work for them. Our association ADDA, in collaboration with the World Society, WSPA, launched two years ago a campaign to have Barcelona declared anti-bullfighting city. We believed that the occasion was unique because in May 2004 Barcelona would be celebrated the Universal Forum of Cultures which would last until September and the slogans of which were cultural diversity, peace and sustainability, all summed up in the following sentence: "Let's work for the world we want". It is crystal clear that [those] who defend the animals want a world of peace without violence nor torture towards the bulls as it happens in bullfights. In March 2002, the Demoscopia agency (one of the most well-known statistics agencies of Spain) made a survey in Catalonia and, one year later, in March 2003, in Barcelona, asking quite similar questions in both cases. The results of the two surveys were almost the same and always showed a huge majority of Catalans and Barcelona citizens rejecting the cruelty of bullfighting.
The collaboration from Catalonia, as well as from the rest of Spain and the rest of the world, especially Europe, has been fundamental to gather the 245,000 signatures and letters personally addressed to Mayor Joan Clos; signatures and letters which were handed in on Thursday, 25 March, during a public event in front of Barcelona City Hall. As a result, in the Plenary of the City Council, yesterday, Tuesday, 6 April , a historical fact happened when the mayor allowed a secret vote in order for every councillors to vote freely. The result was 21 votes in favour of an anti-bullfighting Barcelona, 15 against and 2 abstentions. This is a significant step towards the abolishment of bullfighting in Spain because, even if Barcelona City Council doesn't have any legal resource to prohibit bullfighting, we now have enough weight to request this prohibition from the Catalan Parliament which has the legal power to take such a decision. This way bullfighting wouldn't be abolished only in Barcelona but also in all Catalonia. Spain being divided in 17 local governments, we can hope that other local governments will take the same decision. In name of ADDA and WSPA, we really want to thank you all for your help and support which have been very important to reach this huge number of signatures and letters, which has strongly influenced the City Hall's decision.
Carmen Méndez
More Info: Bullfighting Cruelty For more information on bullfighting, please visit our Ban Bullfighting Website at: www.banbloodsports.com/bullfighting. Includes gallery, video clips and petition.
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