Nearly 2,000 bullfights – or “corridas” – are still held in the country every year. While opponents condemn it as barbaric, the fans in Spain, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy consider it as the nation’s cultural heritage. So, it is the state’s duty to “preserve it and promote it”.
A Spanish law passed in 2013 defends bullfighting. However, in 2010, Catalonia became the second Spanish region after the Canary Islands to ban the tradition.
This year since the beginning of July, seven bullfighters lost their lives at Spain summer festivals in Penafiel, a town near Valladolid, north of Madrid, in Lerin, Navarra and in the regions of Valencia, Murcia, Toledo, Castellon and Alicante.
Unusually a large number of deaths occurred during bull-running in the streets in such a short period. Cattle casualty last year is more than 7,200 bulls and steers (castrated bull calves) across Spain.
The bullfighting results not only in the death of men and animals. It generated €282.4m (£200m; $313m) in 2013, of which €59m was income from sales tax (VAT) as per the report of Spanish economics lecturer Juan Medina at the University of Extremadura.
