Animal welfare

PSOE under pressure over Fornalutx bull-run ban

The Fornalutx bull-run is due to be banned, but is there some political backtracking? | P. Bota

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma31/05/2016 00:00

A total of 350,000 signatures have been gathered for the petition to outlaw bullfighting in the Balearics. Under the umbrella of the Mallorca Sense Sang (Majorca Without Blood) campaign, these signatures have come from different sources, such as the animal-rights group AnimaNaturalis.

This level of support plus that of 33 municipalities which have declared themselves against bullfighting is being used to put pressure on PSOE to ensure that the "correbou" bull-run in Fornalutx is not exempted from the change to animal-welfare legislation that will ban bullfighting.

Guillermo Amengual, spokesperson for the campaign, says that trust has been placed in the words of leading socialists in Majorca. "During months of contact we and indeed all the citizens have always been promised that the correbou will be banned." Amengual adds that if there were to now be backtracking, this would be a case of cheating the public in order to please a few people. "How can it be that three councillors and some 200 votes in Fornalutx can block a law (with so much support)?"

Amengual is specifically referring to the opposition of PSOE councillors in Fornalutx to the correbou ban. They have been threatening to leave PSOE if the ban goes ahead.

"Does PSOE not want to say anything? I don't think it is wise to deceive the public over something as sensitive as animal mistreatment when the general election is less than a month away."

He expects all parties involved in the law - PSOE, Més and Podemos - to abide by their promises and to abolish bullfighting and the correbou before the start of summer.