Spanish Anti-Bullfighting Campaign Shatters Signature Goal!
On Monday, February 17, over 100 anti-bullfighting activists gathered on the steps of the Spanish Congress of Deputies to officially submit 715,606 signatures in support of the No Es Mi Cultura (“It’s Not My Culture”) campaign. The movement, which has spent the past year gathering support across Spain, is attempting to pass a Popular Legislative Initiative that would revoke bullfighting’s status as “cultural heritage”, a designation bestowed on bullfighting in 2013 which has crated special protections for the cruel blood sport. This classification has since prevented individual Spanish cities and municipalities from banning bullfighting, despite widespread opposition to the practice in many parts of the country.
Representatives from several Spanish political parties attended the signature hand-in event, which was celebrated as a “great day” by the current Spanish Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, who has been outspoken in his opposition to bullfighting as a symbol of Spanish culture. Last year, Urtasun officially canceled the country’s National Bullfighting Award, which was established in 1995 and had awarded an annual prize of €30,000 to bullfighters and related organizations. He has also called on the Spanish government to end bullfighting subsidies and instead prioritize channeling those funds into healthcare, education, and cruelty-free cultural initiatives.
The success of the It’s Not My Culture movement in gathering over 200,000 more than the required signatures for this Popular Legislative Initiative to be considered in the Spanish Congress of Deputies, along with the outspoken opposition to bullfighting from the current Minister of Culture, is a strong testament to the changing attitudes of the Spanish people toward this violent and outdated practice. The Spanish Congress of Deputies now has six months to verify the signatures and, if at least 500,000 are validated, vote on the initiative. Juan López de Uralde, a former member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies and co-founder of Spain’s Alianza Verde (“Green Alliance”) party, attended the submission event alongside other animal rights activists and called on the legislature to move quickly on this Popular Legislative Initiative to ensure that the new law, which represents the will of the Spanish people, is passed before the end of the current legislative session.
You can show your opposition to this form of animal cruelty, and your support for the dedicated Spanish animal activists striving to create a more compassionate future for bulls, by signing our petition below.