MADRID – Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Madrid to protest the traditional bullfighting events. They responded to the appeal of the animal rights party PACMA.
Outside the Las Ventas arena, they called for an end to activities that use animals for entertainment and abuse according to animal rights activists. This includes classic bullfights, but also events such as the Pamplona bull run. In some of these events, not only animals are killed, but often people are seriously injured or even killed.
Slogans
At the front of the bullfighting protest was a banner with the slogan ‘Misión Abolición’, which translates ‘abolition mission’. Protesters shouted, “I am ashamed of this national celebration” and “We are going to close this arena”. Other placards read: “When a living being suffers, it is not a party” or “92% of Spaniards don’t go to bullfights”.
¡Misión Abolición! 💚✊ pic.twitter.com/26Ow7jPVCj
— PACMA (@PartidoPACMA) September 24, 2022
Total abolition is the aim
Yolanda Morales, the spokeswoman for PACMA, told EFE that the party is committed to “the total abolition of bullfighting as well as all bull running and other cruel festivities involving animals in Spain.”
She also pointed out that “bullfighting is very socially conditioned”. But “unfortunately” the institutions “continue to nurture, promote and fund it”. That is why it has demanded the commitment of parties and governments to achieve the abolition of this practice.
Growing rejection from society
Pacma states that “the decline of bullfighting is a tangible phenomenon” and that “the decline in the number of bullfights in recent years is an irrefutable sign of society’s growing rejection of the cruelty of bullfighting”.
