WSPA congratulates anti-bullfight MEPs

Apr 30, 2007

WSPA would like to congratulate the 207 MEPs, representing all 27 EU member states, who stated their support for an EU-wide ban on bullfighting. To obtain a majority, 394 MEP signatures were needed before the deadline of 15 April 2007. Despite a barrage of pressure from animal welfare organisations, sadly the Written Declaration did not pass.

A Written Declaration on an EU-wide ban on bullfighting was presented on 15 January 2007 by four Members of the European Parliament: Robert Evans (UK), Mojca Drcar Murko (Slovenia), Gitte Seeberg (Denmark) and Carl Schlyter (Sweden).

In presenting this declaration, these MEPs raised the profile of the issue dramatically. Furthermore the 207 MEPs who gave their support to the ban should be congratulated, as we feel it makes a strong statement about this cruel practice from across the EU.

WSPA would also like to thank its many supporters who wrote to their MEPs, encouraging them to sign. Every letter sent helped to achieve this, and raised the profile of the issue in the EU.

It is shocking that bullfighting still exists in a European Union which prides itself on being a world leader in animal welfare. The Amsterdam Protocol recognizes that sentient animals should be protected from cruelty, and such a barbaric ‘sport’ should not count as an exception to this rule.

WSPA works very closely with many of our member societies in Europe on this issue, in particular with the Spanish animal welfare organisation Asociación Defensa Derechos Animal (ADDA), with whom we are working for a ban on bullfighting in the Catalonia region of Spain.