Criticisms of bullfighting
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Bullfighting has for many years been a controversial activity; while it has passionate supporters forming a vocal minority, it is reviled by critics as a gratuitously cruel blood sport. Animal welfare campaigners object strongly to bullfighting because they believe that animals should not be killed or abused for entertainment. Some also believe that the bull suffers severe stress or a slow, painful death. Bullfighting is banned in many countries; people taking part in such activity would be liable for terms of imprisonment for animal cruelty. "Bloodless" variations, though, are permitted and have attracted a following in California, and France. It is notable that Spanish laws against cruelty to animals have abolished most archaic spectacles that had involved animals while including specific exceptions for bullfighting. Animal welfare supporters, but also non activists, believe that such exemptions were passed because legislators were worried that prosecutions of bullfighting would otherwise take place.[citation needed] As time goes by, the Spanish regulations have reduced the goreyness of the fight, introducing the padding for picadors' horses and mandating full-fledged operation theatres in the premises, allowing modern injured bullfighters to survive where their forebearers would die of septicaemia or blood loss.
A number of animal rights or animal welfare activist groups undertake anti-bullfighting actions in Spain and other countries. In Spanish, opposition to bullfighting is referred to as taurofobia. Some separatists despise bullfighting because of its association with the Spanish nation and its blessing by the Franco regime as the fiesta nacional.[citation needed] However, even a former Basque Batasuna leader was a novillero before becoming a politician. Barcelona came out a few years ago with a symbolic vote against bullfighting.[citation needed] Catalan nationalism naturally played an important role in this decision. Bullfighting in Barcelona continues to this day[1] Bullfighting has been banned in the Canary Islands, but cockfighting is still legal.[citation needed]
Another current of criticism comes from aficionados themselves, who may despise modern developments such as the defiant style ("antics" for some) of El Cordobés or the lifestyle of Jesulín de Ubrique, a common subject of Spanish gossip magazines. His "female audience"-only corridas were despised by veterans. Many reminisce about times past, comparing modern bullfighters with early figures.
Fin-de-siecle Spanish regeneracionista intellectuals protested against what they called the policy of pan y toros ("bread and bulls"), an analogue of Roman panem et circenses promoted by politicians to keep the populace content in its oppression. Later this criticism has shifted to the more popular pastime of football.
