There is a legislative war afoot in Spain surrounding bullfighting and its place in modern Spanish culture.
Let us explore the world of Bullfighting and whether it really could lose its protected cultural status.
In Spain tens of thousands of bulls are killed each year for a practice that animal protection groups say is both barbaric and losing popular support.
126 municipalities across Spain, including parts of Mallorca, Catalonia and Galicia have declared themselves anti-bullfighting zones, but as the law protects the sport there is little legal recourse to stop fights from taking place.
According to an Ipsos I&O Public survey, 77 percent of Spaniards agreed that bullfights cause suffering and nearly 60 percent of those surveyed are against the sport completely.
In February, 2025 the popular campaign ‘no es mi cultura’ or it is not my culture, gathered a monumental number of signatures with aim of changing the law.
715,606 Spanish Nationals signed from 40 provinces across Spain, to change the law that protects bullfighting as part of Spanish heritage.
With over 200,000 signatures more than it needed to go before the Congress of Deputies, there is real hope amongst animal associations and those opposed to the fights that the law might be changed.
What does a bullfight entail?
Traditionally, the first steps in a bullfight include posturing and cape work, often completed by a matador’s assistants the movement of decorated and colourful capes are used to assess a bull’s reactions and reaction times.
At which point the bull is often subjected to multiple cuts, made by men, sometimes on horse-back, called picadores.
The bulls travel to the ring, deal with the noise of a crowded stadium, the confusion of the capes and are then continually provoked and cut, at which point a matador then enters the ring and intends to kill the animal with two large harpoons straight to the heart.
Unfortunately, for the animal, their suffering is often prolonged as the harpoons miss their target.
A bullfight on average takes up to twenty minutes to complete. 180,000 bulls die globally each year due to the sport.
It is not just dangerous for the Bulls
There are modern examples of Matadors losing their lives; in 2016, matador Victor Barrio lost his life in the arena, he was the first matador to die in Spain in thirty years and again in 2017 Iván Fandiño passed away, after being gored by a bull.
However, scientific reports stated in an 8-year-long study covering three European countries including Spain “The mean accident rate was 9.13% and the mortality rate was 0.48%”.
What does the bullfighting industry have to say?
The figures on how much the bullfighting industry brings to the Spanish economy are in the billions.
And although voices like Not My Culture are loud, according Aenet a non-profit association which represents the “most important bullfighting businessmen” the numbers of visitors attending bullfighting festivals aren’t waning considerably.
In the community of Madrid the figures speak for themselves, over nearly 20 years: “more than 30 million spectators went to the bullfights in the Community of Madrid between 2007 and 2024.”
They went on to explain that 2007 had the highest level of spectators, although an “important upturn took place after the pandemic: the number of spectators… in 2022 exceeded 2 million again, which means an important reactivation of the sector.”