Madrid goes into the street

Madrid. – Fearing fall out from the proposed prohibition of bullfighting in Catalonia, Esperanza Aguirre (Madrid People’s Party) announced a few weeks ago his intention of declaring bullfights a ‘“Bien de Interés Cultural” (‘In the Interest of Culture) or “BIC”, a decision supported also by the Valencian Community and that of Murcia, both of the People’s Party. But his words have acted as catalyst that has united movements for of the defense of the rights and wellbeing of animals, bullfight abolitionists and conservationists. As a result last March 28th, saw the biggest demonstration against bullfights ever seen in Madrid. With a multitude of banners and pennants, headed up by the slogan TORTURE IS NOT CULTURE, it passed through the streets of Madrid filling them from the Puerta del Sol, to the head office of the CAM (Autonomous Community of Madrid), where the demonstrators met with a group of writers, journalists and other professionals to protest the cruelty of the inaptly named “holiday”. Finally a manifesto, agreed by all the groups represented, was presented that demonstrated the strength of the Spanish animal welfare movement. The march finally disbanded at 2 pm.
Although the event was awaited with interest by the Madrid press, many of the following day’s newspapers, such as El Mundo, completely ignored the event. Others such as ABC – Madrid edition – merely included a photo of the demonstration and joined it to those of other demonstrations, such as one made by house servants. In the Cañada Real and El Pais – also the Madrid edition – a photo of the procession appeared together with a brief, though generally correct, report of the event, although they gave an estimate of the numbers as between 2.000 and 3.000 participants, lower than that of most witnesses. La Razón, within the Bullfighting section of the paper, included a short report, without any photograph, declaring that there were fewer than a thousand participants, whereas the daily newspaper Publico gave a fuller report of the event, together with a photo of the lead banner.
But what they tried to ignore in Madrid, has been widely reported by the foriegn press correspondents present in the capital. Euronews, BBC World, and many others took up the story spreading it to the rest of the world. Reports of the numbers of demonstrators varied widely, some quoting La Razón’s sneering “less than thousand ” and some the estimates of the organisers who reckoned the number of participants to be actually nearer to 20.000.
Editors of this bulletin who were present at the event estimate that the numbers were somewhere between 7.000 and 8.000 people.
Maybe this demonstration will help to make up the minds of those Catalonian deputies who are still undecided. In their hands they hold the possibilty of acting on the side of progress and eradicating in Catalonia a barbaric and cruel spectacle that, so far into the twenty first century, has no place in an advanced country. (March 28th, 2010)