Spanish registration numbers oppose bullfighting. Are her days numbered?

In Grand Las Ventas Bullring in Madrid, the old copper band is placed in an epic march. In the Tidy formation, teams of Matadors, Picadors and Banderilleros are presented to the Sandy Arena floor.

Over the following two hours, each of them will face, respectively, one of the six black bulls, which weighs a minimum of a ton. First, the bull will be spent by Picador on horseback. After that, it will stab three domains with daggers. Finally, Matador will appear with his iconic head, to strike the final blow.

But first, he will dance with the bull, and escape from his concern to the left and right, to the voice of “Ole” from the crowd. The “good” death of the bull has been applauded – the ugly can end the profession of Matador.

“The battle of bulls, in the end, is a representation of the same life,” said Belar Martin, who presented the bull farm. “In the end, death is a reality – (but) of the huge social taboos. The only cultural event that I managed to see, feel and confront these taboos, and know how it is overcome … well, it’s bullfighting.”

Battles such as Las Ventus battles in Spain have been shown for at least 900 years. But today, an increasing number of Spaniards view a harsh harshness that includes an unacceptable cruelty.

Recent surveys showed 77 percent of the Spaniards oppose bullfighting Including more than 80 percent of those under the age of 35 Less than two percent Buy tickets, according to the Ministry of Culture in Spain.

Now, animal rights activists benefit from this decreasing support to pay for the total bullfighting ban – from removing its protected position as part of Spain’s cultural heritage.

“Wrestling bulls are the remains of the past,” said Christina Garcia, Vice President of Pacma in Spain (Animal Party). “We will continue to work so that there is no trace of combating bulls in our country.”

But banning bullfighting will not be easy. Not only supports industry practice 1.6 billion euros ($ 2.5 billion in Canadian) per year – It has become increasingly Cultural war issue Between Spanish politicians from the left and right.

“Spanish society has evolved,” Garcia wrote. “The difference is that our political leaders and decision makers did not do so.”

Old roots – and ongoing opposition

Spanish bullfighting roots are old enough The issue of academic discussion. Some follow its origins to the Neolithic period. Others say it is created with the pagan ceremony in ancient Rome.

Since the thirties of the twentieth century, when dictator Francisco Franco announced it is Spain, “patriotism Feast“It was a symbol of the unified Spanish national culture – One Catalan separatists supported a ban in 2010.

“It can be said, it precedes football as the first form of mass entertainment,” said Denkan Wheeler, historian of Leeds University. “It is a huge part of Spanish and European history.”

But as long as there was a wrestling of the bulls, there was opposition to it. In the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, A series of Spanish kings opposed this practice. In 1567, Pope Pius V went to the maximum Christian nobles banned from participation But its popular attractiveness increased only.

Wheeler explained that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became an official Pinh and the Spanish Battle of Battle, and it became a “form of social progress” for the bold youth in the lower classes. “Really, it’s the birth of celebrity culture in Spain.”

Initially, concerns about its violent nature were largely about “the loss of human life”, Wheeler said. But as contracts have passed on medical progress and Mattadiors safety improved, the opposition began to focus on treating bulls and horses.

“For most Anglo Sixon, this is the most objectionable part of bullfighting,” Ernest Hemingway Write magazine In 1930. “It is especially rejected by the Americans.”

Since the nineties, this feeling has grown among the indigenous people, who are now more likely You have a petand Living in a city and They consider themselves near animals.

“There is a lot of social cost (to go to the Battle of Thiran) now.” “We ask new questions about what is morally acceptable.”

Block growth around the world

This is one of the reasons why activists such as García see the total ban on bullfighting as an increasing inevitable.

actually, Colombia and Mexico The bullfights were completely banned, or they demanded that they be executed without harming the bulls – which he says is lover that he will be impossible without risking Matador’s life.

Earlier this year, more than 700,000 Spanish Width To remove the bullfighting protected condition, pave the way for more regional ban, such as one Really try in Catalonia. The socialist government of Spain has I promised to speed up the discussion From the result.

But bullfighting supporters say animal rights activists are wrong to direct their efforts. Some are rushing to indicate the hypocrisy, which was revealed in Spanish opinion polls, that many bullfighting opponents show meat’s content.

“They do not think about the philosophy of that,” said Alexander Fisk Harrison, the English journalist who trained as Madador on his book. In the square: the world of Spanish fighting. “We all kill livestock for fun … Anyone who buys a burger kills livestock for fun.”

Many people familiar with the industry, such as Martin, confirm that the cattle that is raised on the scene has a better life than those raised for meat.

Large areas of land are allocated for bulls to be largely normal. According to Fiske-Harrison, up to one fifth of the remaining natural scene in Spain is used to lift combat bulls.

Slow death

Despite this opposition, through numbers, bullfighting is actually a slight return. number race Actually It has increased since 2019As in the number of registered Marats, according to the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

It still has its supporters, such as the Fox Party in the extremist Spain-Las Ventus, had a tent outside the square, and collected support signatures to oppose any ban. The party has MATADORS operation in the elections and It currently leads a battle for a 300 -meter statue for bulls In Burgos.

They have led calls to ensure bull control subsidies as a protected cultural heritage Her opponents say “False animal ideology poisoning,” converts the bullfighting to the issue of a wedge in the volatile parliamentary policy in Spain.

“This is the thing: the government can fall by blocking it,” said Fisk Harrison.

But with a fewer Spaniards in fact, observers say even without a ban, it is a matter of time only before they depend on government support to survive.

“People will vote with their pocket books,” Vinyl said. “It is a large economic institution – it continues because someone earns money.”

If the industry cannot maintain itself, its future will be more amazing – and the prohibitions of bullfighting may not be backward.