MPs in the chamber are debating the issue on Friday

A petition was handed in to the Catalan parliament this Monday, signed by 127,000 people demanding an end to bull fighting. The signatures have been collected over the years since the campaign was first launched in 2006. It’s been run by the ADDA Association in Defence of Animals’ Rights and WSPA, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, who want bull fighting banned as a cruel and barbaric practice.

Two women were slightly injured as the bulls were loose in Cádiz city centre for an hour on Sunday

Two women were slightly injured on Sunday night when seven bulls being used for the shooting of a scene in the film ‘Knight & Day’ escaped in the historic city centre of Cádiz, and then headed for the La Caleta beach.

French screen goddess turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot has appealed to the government of Catalonia to back a campaign to ban bullfighting in the northeastern Spanish region.

The Popular Legislative Initiative, which has gathered 180,000 signatures, calls for a change in Catalonia’s animal protection law, which bans killing or mistreating animals in shows except in the case of bullfights.

The Catalan parliament, El Parlament, will vote before the end of this year on whether to continue with a motion which proposes a ban on bullfights.

El Parlament decided yesterday that political parties have until October 28 to propose changes to the motion which means the issue will be due to be debated in November.

Both the right wing Partido Popular (PP) and the socialist Partit dels Socialistes del Catalunya (PSC) have said they will propose amendments to the motion.

Josélito Otega’s cape will carry the words ‘Gay Up’ in a move which has shaken the traditional world of bullfighting

Benalmádena bullfighter, Josélito Otega, says he’s not worried that many will think he is gay. There’s little more macho in Spain than the world of the matador, but now that is set to change as Josélito Otega has accepted the sponsorship on his pink cape, of the new ‘Gay Up’ energy drink brand. Not only is it the first time that sponsorship has appeared on a bullfighter’s cape in Spain, but the product itself is sure to lead to a great deal of additional publicity.

Spain’s steep recession has led dozens of cash-strapped local councils to scrap their annual bullfighting fiestas to save public money, official figures and bullfighting entrepreneurs said earlier this month.

The Madrid regional government said it had granted authorizations for 401 bullfighting festivals as of the beginning of August, a 20 percent drop over the same time last year due mainly to the economic slowdown.

Frank Evans, now 67, has decided to come out of his retirement announced 4 years ago

Britain’s only bullfighter celebrated his 67th birthday in Spain this Tuesday, ahead of his official comeback in the Benalmádena bullring at the end of this month. Frank Evans, a former butcher from Salford, returns to the ring on 30th August in the same ring where he fought for the last time before his retirement four years ago.

A bull knocked top Spanish bullfighter Jose Pedro Prados, better known as “El Fundi”, to the ground during a bullfight on Saturday, leaving him unconscious, public radio RNE reported.

The bull from the Victorino Martin breeder charged into the 42-year-old, causing him to fly into the air before slamming into the ground at the arena in the northern city of San Sebastian, RNE said.

It happened at the local fiesta in Peñafiel, Valladolid

A 53 year old man was gored to death on Saturday at a bull-running festival in Peñafiel, Valladolid. It happened after the first bull run of this year’s festivities at the ‘capea’ bullfight, when amateurs try out their skills against the young bulls.

In Spain, the recession is testing the nation’s passion for that most cherished of traditions – bullfighting. Steve Kingstone visited a town that has decided to slash dramatically the costs of its annual bullfighting fiesta.

Under an already fierce mid-morning sun, the young runners limber up nervously. Some crouch down and touch the dirt, others stare resolutely at the cattle truck behind them.
They have come to run with the bulls – the ultimate test of testosterone in Spain.

A young Spanish man has been gored to death in the traditional running of the bulls in Pamplona, northern Spain.

The 27-year-old was gored in the neck on Friday, during the fourth bull run of the week-long San Fermin festival.

Daniel Jimeno Romero, from Madrid, had emergency surgery in hospital but died of his injuries. Earlier reports had described the dead man as British.

Thousands of revellers sprayed each other with wine Monday as Spain’s most famous festival, the San Fermin running of the bulls, kicked off in the northern city of Pamplona.

Crowds packed the town hall square, most dressed in the traditional outfit of white shirts and red handkerchiefs to watch as city officials launched a skyrocket known as the “chupinazo” at noon, to begin the nine-day festival.

Spain’s most internationally famous event takes place again from 6 – 14 July.

This event is the highlight of the Fiesta de San Fermín made famous by Hemingway’s novel Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises in the 1920s. When a half-dozen or so bulls come stampeding down the streets of Pamplona, you get out of the way; and that’s exactly what hundreds of brave people consisting of both tourists and locals will try to do!

Anti-bullfighting campaigners presented Catalonia’s parliament Thursday with a petition signed by 180,000 people demanding that the sport be banned throughout the northeastern Spanish region.

The campaigners, calling themselves “Prou!” or “Enough!” in Catalan, needed to collect just 50,000 signatures of local residents to legally force the regional parliament of Catalonia in Barcelona to vote on their proposal.

Their campaign had the backing of British comedy actor Ricky Gervais and former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson, a longtime champion of animal rights.