More signatures supporting the ILP (Popular Legislative Initiative) against bullfights.

Barcelona. – The organisation ADDA, Association for the Defence of the Rights of Animals together with the World Society for the Protection of Animals, WSPA, delivered last Monday, 14th December, to the Parliament of Catalonia, 127,000 new signatures against bullfighting in the Catalonian region.
These signatures join those already presented at the Catalonian Parliament against bullfighting, a total of 549.000 that were presented between June, 2005 and February, 2006. The signatures are independent of the platform PROU, and represent the public support for the Popular Initiative (ILP) that has been brought with the aim of achieving a prohibition of bullfights in this community. The Legislative Initiative will be debated in Parliament on December 17th or 18th, when all the amendments presented by those opposed to the initiative, that is the PSC-CPC, PPC and Citizens parties, will be voted upon. Should the vote be favourable then the proposal will then proceed to debate in the Commission of the Environment of the Parliament.
According to Manel Cases, spokesman for ADDA, the proposal will face a chamber that is extremely polarized, but fortunately the majority of deputies incline towards allowing the progress of the ILP. Cases also affirmed that “the bullfights are a spectacle of torture and cruelty that have been rejected by the majority of the citizenship, especially by the Catalan population, of whom more than 70 percent have always registered opposition to the bullfights”.
If the scales incline in favour of the progress of the initiative, an important debate will be opened that could eradicate definitively bullfighting in Catalonia. It is a fact that many political representatives admit privately the serious possibility that the ILP will find a way through to start its process in the Commission. Also, as the majority of parliamentarians tend to be against bullfights, it is expected that, excepting any last minute surprises, the initiative will be sure to succeed.