Bull Deaths in Spanish Bullrings Plunge by 56% in 10 Years

For Immediate Release:

4 July 2019

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

BULL DEATHS IN SPANISH BULLRINGS PLUNGE BY 56% IN 10 YEARS

New Research by PETA Reveals Dramatic Decline in Cruel Blood Sport 

London – Based on recently released data from Spanish authorities, PETA has calculated that the number of animals killed during bullfights in Spain has declined by more than 50% in the last 10 years.

As the archaic spectacle has fallen out of favour with the majority of Spaniards – and tourists – the number of bulls stabbed and killed dropped from approximately 16,000 (in 2008) to roughly 7,000 (in 2018). The decline follows increased opposition to bullfighting throughout Spain in recent years: Catalonia and the Balearic Islands both passed parliamentary laws that effectively ended bullfighting in their autonomic regions.

The data comes just ahead of Pamplona’s San Fermín Festival and its infamous Running of the Bulls event, which still draws over a million tourists, many from Britain. Because most tourists are unaware that the bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the city’s narrow streets will later be stabbed in the bullring, PETA, together with Spanish group AnimaNaturalis, will stage a large-scale demonstration the day before the event, as it has done for the last 18 years, to encourage tourists to stop supporting the bloody bullfights and stay away. More information is available here 

“Bullfighting has no place in a civilised society and is on its way out,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is calling on tourists to stop propping up this bloody spectacle and on Pamplona to join the more than 100 Spanish cities and towns that declared themselves anti-bullfighting.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – notes that during a typical bullfight, several men taunt and stab a bull with harpoon-like banderillas until he becomes weakened from blood loss. Then, the matador stabs the exhausted animal with a sword, and if the bull doesn’t  die straight away, the matador will use a dagger to cut his spinal cord. Many bulls are paralysed but still conscious as their ears or tails are cut off to be given as trophies.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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