Advocates in Spain and Portugal are urging officials to bar minors from participating in or viewing bullfighting and bull running events, claiming they induce trauma and noting recent incidents where children were harmed. Animal rights organisation, Pacma, has proposed to the Spanish Ministry of Culture a prohibition on under-16’s participating in bullfights.
The group contends that implementing this rule is key in shielding youngsters from the inherent violence of these events, highlighting potential distressing implications for children’s social and emotional growth. In 2018, the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child discouraged minors’ involvement in such activities due to its detrimental influence. However, only a handful of Spain’s autonomous communities have enforced this suggestion.
In Galicia, located in the north-west of Spain, individuals under the age of twelve are not permitted to attend bullfights, whereas in the Balearic Islands, an age restriction implemented in 1992 was recently nullified by the incoming right-leaning government. Catalonia has outlawed bullfighting altogether, and the practice is nonexistent in the Canary Islands.
Activists also highlight the safety risks that children face during local celebrations where bulls are baited and lead chases through crowded streets, with more lax safety measures compared to bullrings. Examples of such events include the well-known San Fermín festival in Pamplona, as well as dozens of smaller scale bull running events across Spain and Portugal.
Tragedy struck in September when a bull fled its enclosure during a bull running event in the town of Pantoja, central Spain, resulting in the deaths of two men and injuries to several individuals, including a four-year-old girl.
In August, a young girl aged ten was admitted to the hospital after being mauled by a bull during a festival in the southern Portuguese town of Coruche. Despite Portugal setting the age limit to 16 for attending bullfights in 2021, there are no age limits imposed on the less regulated bull-running activities. In response to the incident, Portuguese anti-bullfighting organisation, ‘Enough of Bullfights’, has demanded the introduction of an age limit at these events and for the parents of the injured girl to be held responsible.
The group has drawn attention to a similar incident in 2022 when a 15-year-old boy lost his life in Moita, a town near Lisbon. Spanish culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, who oversees bullfighting, has yet to comment publicly on the animal rights party Pacma’s demand for a national age restriction. Urtasun, who earlier this year faced severe criticism from bullfighters and industry insiders for scrapping the National Bullfighting Prize arguing it glorified animal torture, is believed to be supportive of the anti-bullfighting campaigns.
This week, FTL, a major bullfighting association, announced that it had initiated legal proceedings against the rescission of the prize. They accuse Ernest Urtasun, a member of the left-wing Sumar coalition, of making the decision on ‘ideological’ grounds, arguing it contradicts his obligation to foster culture.
Both sides argued again recently when ‘Afternoons of Solitude’, a reality-based documentary featuring Peruvian matador Andres Roca Rey, was awarded the acclaimed Golden Shell prize at San Sebastián film festival. Despite Pacma’s failed attempt to stop the screening of the film, branding it as an endorsement to a violent tradition, the film’s director, Alberto Serra, asserted having no political agenda.
While confessing to his love for bullfighting, he told the El País newspaper, “I don’t like causes or ideology, just cinema,” adding further, “Bullfighting isn’t entertainment, it’s a positive value and it is good that it exists.”
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