From ‘Matador’ to ‘Profesor’: PETA Proposes Name Change for Valencia Restaurant
18.06.2025
The new name would honour teachers: “Let’s retire the swords and hand out diplomas instead”
Valencia – PETA has sent a proposal to the restaurant ‘El Matador’, located in the trendy neighbourhood of Ruzafa, in Valencia, suggesting they trade their blood-red aprons for tweed jackets and rename themselves ‘El Profesor’ to honour teachers, who are the real protectors of Valencia heritage, instead of “glorifying animal abusers who torment and kill bulls for entertainment”.
“Bulls want only to be left in peace, yet they’re relentlessly terrorised, repeatedly stabbed, and violently slaughtered in front of jeering crowds,” says PETA Vice President for Europe Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is encouraging ‘El Matador’ to become ‘El Profesor’ to graduate from promoting outdated cruelty and win the praise of caring Valencians who rightly recognise that bullfighting is torture, not culture”.
Bekhechi continues: “Why glorify violence when you could celebrate educators? The Generalitat is dedicating funds to animal cruelty while slashing cultural institutions. Let’s retire the swords and hand out diplomas instead”. Fundación Toro de Lidia, a Madrid-based entity that promotes bullfighting spectacles across Spain has received almost 5 million euros in public subsidies from various administrations between 2020 and 2025. This budget allocation includes 300.000 euros in 2023 and another 300.000 in 2024 by the Valencian Department of Culture, led at the time by Vicente Barrera of Vox.
At the end of May, PP and Vox approved several amendments to the draft budget of the Generalitat, which reduce the accounts of the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) by 800,000 euros.
The proposal comes hot on the heels of Spain’s growing anti-bullfighting sentiment, where 8 out of 10 Spaniards consider bullfighting unacceptable. Earlier this year, Spanish animal protection groups delivered 664,777 signatures to the Electoral Commission as part of the “No Es Mi Cultura” (It Is Not My Culture) citizens’ initiative, which seeks to repeal a 2013 law designating bullfighting as “cultural heritage”. Because the initiative, supported by PETA, far exceeded the minimum threshold of 500,000 signatures, the Spanish Congress must officially consider repealing the law. PETA notes that the Matador restaurant is newly opened, and located in an area beloved by younger generations – all the more reason for a name change.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 020 7923 6244; [email protected]
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