By Nagesh Narayana: Subscribe to Nagesh's RSS feed
July 28, 2010 12:05 PM EDT
Members of the Catalonian parliament voted on Wednesday to ban bullfighting in the region as expected, becoming the first regional parliament in Spain that is sure to influence other regions.
The speaker announced in the 135-seat legislature on Wednesday that the bill to ban bullfighting (corrida) was passsed by a vote 68 to 55 with nine abstentions. The bill will become an act and enforceable in 2012.
A 2002 Gallup poll showed 68.8 percent of Spaniards had "no interest" in bullfighting while 20.6 expressed "some interest", while 10.4 percent were found with "a lot of interest" in it. Many TV channels in the region have a blanket ban on covering bullfighting, which they say is violent and against human values.
Animal lovers allege that the animal was kept in dark for hours or applied gel in its eyes to impair its vision under the bright light in the afternoon when it enters the ring.
The move to ban corrida began in 2004 when the Barcelona city council passed a symbolic vote against bullfighting. In December 2009, Catalonian parliament gave its nod to prepare a bill to ban bullfighting after it received 180,000 signatures to the effect.
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Corrida organizers fear the ban may spread to other parts of Spain affecting thousands of jobs, which they say should be compensated.
Currently, bullfighting is practiced in many former Spanish colonies like Mexico, Peru and some parts of France and Portugal.
Animal lovers scored over such sports earlier in Britain too where Fox hunting by trained foxhounds was banned initially in 2002 and all over the kingdom in 2004 on similar grounds of cruelty to animals.
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