First anti-bullfight meeting

Asti (Italy) – organized by the Italian affiliation UNA.  In April, 2009 Asti was the site of Italy’s first anti-bullfight meeting. Several different animal defence and welfare groups presented the situation of the anti-bullfighting movement in their respective countries.  In the case of Spain, the defenders of the animals presented concrete facts: overall 70 % of the population rejects bull-fighting, and the anti-bullfighting movement represents a majority even in Andalusia. In case of Catalonia, already more than 120,000 signatures have been gathered in order to present a Proposal of Law in the regional Parliament that prohibits this type of spectacles.  On May 6 the deputies will begin to debate the proposal. In Portugal, the steady and unrelenting work of animal defenders is bearing fruit; two cities have already declared themselves anti-bullfighting. In other sessions representatives of French and Italian animal defence affiliations also took part, and the participants heard contributions from a veterinarian, an Italian historian and a psychologist, who described, respectively, the physiological effects of the bullfight on the animal, the evolution of bullfighting festivals through the centuries and the psychological impact of bullfighting on children and adults.