Government To 'Promote and Protect' Bull-Fighting as 'National Cultural Heritage'
Thursday, October 3, 2013 @ 10:47 AM
BULL-FIGHTING and bull-running will be officially considered 'national cultural heritage' based upon its 'tradition' in Spain following a motion in Parliament ending with a majority vote by the PP government.
The move comes from a petition received in Congress with 600,000 signatures calling for the spectacle to be considered a 'cultural asset', and will mean the government will create measures and invest money in promoting and protecting bull-fighting and bull-running throughout the country.
Members of the opposition, including most of the PSOE, abstained from voting.
This goes entirely in the face of a recent protest by over 15,000 people led by the independent Pro-Animal Party (PACMA) calling for bull-fighting and any other spectacle within Spain's fiestas which involved unnecessary cruelty to animals to be banned.
The demonstration, which took place in Tordesillas (Valladolid province) and then moved to Madrid with a manifesto read and a spear snapped in front of the PSOE and PP headquarters, was mostly against the Toro de la Vega tournament held in the northern town which protesters described as 'the cruellest and most barbaric' form of animal torture for entertainment.
It involves several hundred people crowding around a loose bull and hurling sharp spears at it, until eventually the animal is completely surrounded and unable to escape the multiple weapons.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com