29/03/2026
Heute teilen wir einen Brief betreffend die Legalität von Stierkämpfen:
Article 4 of the EU’s charter on fundamental rights prohibits torture and inhumane treatment. Yet on the EU’s soil, every year, several hundred thousand bulls are tortured and inhumanely killed in full public view—in arenas and on television. Between August 2023 and September 2025, I sent this message below to 321 members of the Spanish Congress.
“You are an honorable representative of Spain’s citizens. With my due respect for you and for your country, please allow me to ask you the following questions, as a fellow human being:
1) Do you consider bloodshed in full public view, irrespective of who the blood comes from and for what reason, nonviolent and lawful?
2) Does a legal framework that permits public bloodshed fulfill its basic mission of maintaining law and order by preventing violence?
3) What can such public bloodshed do for children?”
On 7 October 2025, the Spanish congressional deputies—with 169 votes against, 57 for, and 118 abstentions—rejected the Popular Legislative Initiative to remove bullfight’s national-monument status. As of 14 February 2026, world’s children continue to watch bullfights, both in arenas and on television.
I know of at least one adult who, as a child, was forced by his parents to watch bullfights; he still lives their trauma. Anyone who stands in front of the arenas of Madrid, San Sebastian, Sevilla, Nimes, Arles will see his parents aren’t the only spectators of these public shows of cruelty committed on animals, which they can’t often legally attend in their home countries. Several taurine-tour operators, which offer all-inclusive luxury packages, use some world-famous artists’ love for bullfights to lure international aficionados into this glorious gore.
In 2025, I also sent this message to Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, and economy minister, Yolanda Diaz; to European Commission’s president, Ursula Von Der Leyen; and to 87 Euro deputies of the Union’s member states.
Bullfighting is a public show of bloodshed for pleasure. The fighting bulls symbolize all animals tortured for human entertainment. This torture happens before our eyes—in arenas and on television. Torturing a bull steals the animal’s dignity and ours. Whereas the organ-on-a-chip technology can stop animal-based laboratory testing, no technological advance will stop bullfights; only consumers’ conscious choice can, by extinguishing demand and by drying up money supply. The arenas’ prime seats don’t come cheap. In all taurine cities, bullfighting is sustained mostly by blood-thirsty elites, often from countries where cruelty committed on animals is a felony. You may discover that your next-door neighbor travels abroad to attend bullfights. Although bullfighting continues in the name of art, culture, and tradition, the real reason is economic. And alternate economic routes do exist.
If you’re sensitive to the fighting bulls’ plight, I invite you to circulate this message. Your effort will help liberate these bulls from their forced predicament.
Your act may not guarantee result, but your intention counts.
Thank you for your time.
Text written by Indrajit Garai: Article 4 of the EU’s charter on fundamental rights prohibits torture and inhumane treatment. Yet on the EU’s soil, every year, several hundred thousand bulls are to…
