#LoveSpainHateBullfighting – The Hand-In
Tens of thousands of you have taken action. Tens of thousands of you have said a resounding “No” to bullfighting and sent messages to the Spanish embassy demanding that the cruel sport not be granted legal protection.
Now we’ve made sure that your voices will be heard by delivering your messages to the Spanish authorities in person. Teaming up with the Humane Society International, the League Against Cruel Sports and the World Society for the Protection of Animals, last week we gathered outside the Spanish embassy in London with a crowd of volunteers wearing bull masks, including Spanish model Elen Rivas, and presented the ambassador with the names of the 67,078 people who signed the #LoveSpainHateBullfighting letter.
And today we were in Madrid, to give a letter to the Spanish Congress of Deputies, signed by more than 100 animal welfare organisations from 29 countries.
The letter opposes a proposed new law that would enshrine bullfighting as a national cultural pastime and allow public funds to be spent on it. This legislation, is about to be debated by the Spanish parliament, is backward, inhumane and totally out of tune with the values of modern Spain. As Barcelona-born Elen says, “Glorifying the deliberate slaughter of animals should not be tolerated in a civilised society”.
In the bullring, terrified animals are stabbed repeatedly with spears, spikes and daggers and eventually die in agony as a jeering crowd looks on. A recent Ipsos MORI poll of Spanish citizens showed that more than three-quarters do not wish their taxes to be used for this purpose, and the majority of Spaniards don’t attend bullfights. In fact, the unpopular bullfighting industry is largely propped up by EU subsidies.
The movement against bullfighting is global, with compassionate people inside and outside Spain alike voicing their opposition to the barbaric spectacle. Thanks to the phenomenal response by diverse animal-protection groups and the thousands of caring people who have united to rally against this absurd proposed law, Spanish authorities can hardly fail to get the message – bullfighting needs to be banned, not protected!
