During the Congress, the Platform presented the results of a survey made by IPSOS, “an independent company”, assured Pierre Giacometti, although its owner is a bullfighting fan. For the purposes of independence and likeliness of the results, it may be asked: is it possible to commission a survey about bullfighting to a businessman keen on this cruelty? The survey, as they stated, was made over 1000 people selected randomly and by telephone.

1.- Has the enthusiasm level descended in Spain?

70’s: 55% of enthusiasm
2000’s: 38% of enthusiasm

2.- In Catalonia, how many people are fan?

The 11% is fan
The 89% is not fan

3) In Catalonia, are they in favour or against bullfighting?

In favour: 28%
Against: 68%

4) Are they in favour or against popular feasts in which bullfights are organised?

In favour: 29%
Against: 67%

5) Would you forbid bullfights in Catalonia?

In favour of the prohibition, the 24%
Against the prohibition: the 76%.

Note that to the key question, which is number 5, by forcing the surveyed person to declare him or herself against any kind of prohibition, is the only answer which results favourable to them with relation to the remaining total which resulted overwhelmingly contrary to them. Because of this, the results of this survey to which The Bull Tribune has had access have not been too advertised by the people in favour of bullfighting. But the question lies in the fact that the petitions of the animal defenders in Catalonia do not demand the prohibition, since the Catalan Protection Act already forbids the mistreatment of animals in public events, but the abolition of the exception that actually tolerates bullfights.

 Barcelona.- When the Catalan Parliament received the first signatures of the protectionist entities demanding the prohibition of bullfights, ERC and ICV-Verds showed themselves in favour of jointly elaborating the proposal, although from the first moment the ecosocialists conditioned a possible agreement to the inclusion of the correbous in the prohibition. Finally, ERC has not wanted to do it, something that has caused that the two political forces present separate propositions in order to modify the animal protection legislation. The handling of the Catalan Statute has paralysed these proposals to which the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, PSC, has opposed itself, presenting - jointly with the Partido Popular, PPC - an amendment to the whole.

 Never, in any national production, co-production or foreign production had the real face of the bullfight been shown. It had always been disguised. The bullfighter was the hero who bravely risked his life before the fearsome bull and, at the end, when he gave death to the animal after humiliating it and subjecting it to an immense suffering, he was acclaimed with fervour. No one had wanted to show how the basic rights of an alive being are violated, how the words torture, money and corruption mingle in these shows.

The film Animal, at present expecting to complete its financing, as the persons in charge explain, “wants to reflect that world never shown, always subject to veto and, for many, antithetic to what a civilisation in the depths of the XXI Century should entail. We would like to, in some years, contribute to being able to say, with our heads held high, with a wide smile and from the most profound of our hearts, that the National Feast of Spain is love”.

The film tells the love story between the sister of a bullfighter, vet, a kind and intelligent girl, truly caring for animals, and the bull “Bravo”, an animal with an astounding appearance, of the livestock of her own brother. The night before the bullfighting something incredible happens: “Bravo” turns itself into a man, a transformation which confuses Anna to the point of mixing up reality, fiction, love, pain, passion and sensitivity (www.animallapelicula.com).

The scalper makes a pile

 The investigation team of Antena 3 TV developed during the year 2004 a report in which it was shown how the scalpers work before a bullfight, an information which today continues to be completely valid. The report took place in the depths of the San Isidro Fair. “In this black market everything is meticulously calculated by the scalper. He will make a pile provided that in the ticket office hangs the poster “No tickets left” – explain the reporters. That is why they use poverty-stricken people that sleep all night before the ticket office in order to get the tickets.  

1. Do they pay you for being here? – asks a journalist to one of the scalpers – How much?
2. Depends on the poster.
3. One thousand pesetas, two thousand?
4. The bosses of the group, like me, get more.

At any rate, the disproportion between what they pay to those who stay all night at the cue and what they receive is enormous. A member of the team came close to the ticket office of the bullring. At that moment, a scalper approaches and they strike up a conversation.

1. Terraces 6, but this is Sun, isn’t it?
2. Shadow costs two hundred euros, my daughter.

In the most important bullfights of the Fair only some thousands of tickets are put to sale. The scalpers rub their hands together. As the report shows, swanky touting acts in the surroundings of the hotels where the bullfighters get dressed. Some go so far as to earn 12.000 euros in one Fair. They have season tickets in property for many years now. In the event that the Police discovered them, they would requisite the tickets from them and they would propose them for a sanction that can arrive up to 6000 euros. 

Well-known livestock farmers, such as Victorino Martín, confessed to Antena3 TV team that “they have to turn to touting in order to be able to comply with their commitments”. I need tickets for the people and I have to turn to touting in the Seville Fair. “I spent one million pesetas”, as the livestock farmer commented.    

Filed mistreatments
Terres de l’Ebre, (Catalonia).- The Government Office of the Catalan Parliament in Terres de l’Ebre has filed the 19 denounces, presented by the Anti-bullfighting Party Against Animal Mistreatment, PACMA, against bullfighting acts which took place last year in different towns of the territory. Albeit having presented graphic proof, videos and photos, of the mistreatment inflicted to oxes and calve, the Government has rejected the documents because “the people who obtained them, not being vets, were not capable of proving the mistreatments”. The certificates of the vets, however, are not legally binding. Then, “what is necessary for evidencing that animals are being mistreated and that the law is being infringed?” asks infuriated the representative of the PACMA in Terres de l’Ebre, Dora Casadó.
In this sense, animalists denounce that the Catalan Government Parliament hides the reports of the vets regarding the “embolaos bulls” (or bulls of fire) and the “ensogados” elaborated in the application frame of the good practices guide that some city halls voluntarily follow. The PACMA had formally asked access to last year’s files with all the documents relative to the authorisation of the bullfighting acts. “According to the vets, in 8% of the cases, the animals suffered mistreatment: we wanted to discover in which villages it had happened to ask for sanctions”. Despite revising more than half of the reports, the PACMA’s delegate assured having found none. “A civil servant of the Games and Shows General Direction declared that they did not appear because it was not mandatory and they had no legal validity. They have such. The reports signed by vets have legal validity” (source PACMA).   

1. The Arenas
53 squares stayed active, three less than in 2004.
2. The bullfights
The total of 149 bullfights (162 in the previous year) shares itself out in the following way:

• 74 bullfights (12 less than in 2004)
• 43 young bulls’ bullfights with picadors (three less)
• 12 bullfights where the bull is fought on horseback and wounded with the lance (three less)
• 11 mixed shows (5 more)
• 5 festivals (the same number as the previous year)

After the “record” of year 2003 (in which 174 bullfights took place), the total number of shows continues diminishing. A decrease which refers, above all, to bullfights. The evolution of mixed shows is intimately related to the launching marketing of the responsible for four of them, Julio Benítez.

The most active Arenas continue to be the same: Nîmes with 16 bullfights, five less than in 2004, and the decrease could grow in 2006 with the abolition of the Spring Fair; Arles, with 11 (3 bullfights less, among them 2 festivals); and there follow Dax, with 10 (the same), Bayone with 8 (- 1), Mont-de-Marsan with 6 (-1), Béziers with 5 (- 1) and Fenouillet-Toulouse with 5 (the same).