Opposition to bullfighting is as old as the spectacle itself. “Inherent” to its existence, several historians consulted agree. The first actions against bullfighting date back 500 years, although the arguments have been shaped over time: from the “devil’s spectacle” on which the clergy based the pioneering ban of 1567 to the attack on animal rights recognized today, passing through the delay and waste of time that for the enlightened – the first anti-bullfighting bloc of influential people in history – was the celebration.
Several recent works have studied this aspect of history, such as Taurinism/Anti-taurinism (Chair), written by Beatriz Badorrey, professor of legal history at UNED, in 2022 or Bread and Bulls (Plaza y Valdés Editores), by the journalist and professor Juan Ignacio Codina; while the Reales Maestranzas themselves include this most unknown reality in their exhibitions in a country where bullfighting is based on the idea of ”tradition”. In Ronda, one of the explanatory panels intended for the public can read: “Among the three arguments used [contra los toros]those of a religious and moral nature, those of an economic nature and those linked to the suffering of animals, only the latter prevails.
“Whether it is out of morality or compassion for the animal, there are sectors from the first minute that do not accept the spectacle,” explains José Marchena Domínguez, professor of contemporary history at the University of Cádiz. The oldest documents that prove the existence of bullfighting date back to the 9th century, explains Professor Badorrey in a conversation with elDiario.es. Then it was “bullfighting on horseback, a fight that serves as military training.” The first criticisms, at least those that are documented, appear shortly after, in the 13th century in the Departures of Alfonso.
Two bans
However, it was neither more nor less than the Church that carried out the earliest and most energetic decision against the bulls. It appeared three centuries later, in 1567, in the bull of Greetings Gregis Dominic signed by Pope Pius – a notable inquisitor –, which established the ban on bullfighting and threatened excommunication for anyone who attended.
It reads: “Wanting to abolish these bloody and shameful spectacles, not of men but of the devil, and to provide for the salvation of souls to the extent of our possibilities with the help of God, we formally prohibit by this our constitution, which will be in force perpetually, under penalty of excommunication and anathema which will be incurred for the act itself. Ipso facto“It was not accepted that such aggressive and violent spectacles were seen by believers because it would end up degenerating moral and Christian values,” analyzes Marchena Domínguez. Pope Pius V appeals to “a humanist and also moral argument.” “The clergy do not necessarily have to be in the bubbles but rather praying. The idea is that they do not drink, frequent taverns or attend bullfights,” adds Badorrey.
The clerics are not required to be in the bubbles but praying. The idea is that they do not drink, do not frequent taverns and do not watch bullfights.
Beatriz Badorrey, professor of legal history
But the first ban specifically in Spain – and not only for Christians – came with Charles IV. He inherited a hostile policy towards bulls from his father Charles III, who had already tried to limit them, pushed by the enlightened, and banned the festivals of bulls and dead steers in 1805 throughout the Kingdom, “without exception of the court”. This is the text of the royal decree of February 10, 1805, signed in Aranjuez: “I have thought it right to absolutely prohibit throughout the Kingdom, without exception of the Court, the festivals of dead bulls and oxen; Commander, no appeal or representation be admitted on this subject: and that those who have a perpetual or temporary concession for the public use of their useful or pious products, propose equivalent resolutions to my Council, which will present them to me for my Sovereign resolution (sic).
“The enlightened people formed the first influential and solid bloc against bulls because they considered them useless to progress. So much so that they convinced the kings. First to Carlos III, then to his son,” explains Badorrey. The minister Gaspar de Jovellanos publicly lavished a report delivered to the Royal Academy of History on games, shows and public entertainment in which he declared that “to believe that the courage and skill of a dozen men raised in this profession” can present Europe “. because an argument about Spanish bravery and oddity is absurd. The enlightened detractors abandoned the humanist arguments of the Church to replace them with more utilitarian ones: they allude to the disastrous effect on absenteeism at work, to the damage that bull breeding causes in agriculture and to the national reputation of Spain. “They think it doesn’t contribute anything to culture or modernization, but not from a religious point of view,” explains Marchena Domínguez.
A few years earlier, in 1796, an anonymous, clandestine pamphlet had been distributed and become very popular entitled Bread and Bullsthat It included sentences like this: “Who is coldly accustomed to seeing a man blown between the horns of a bull, opened by a horn, pouring out his entrails and watering the place with his blood? […]”For years it was wrongly attributed to Jovellanos, although later the thinker and writer León de Arroyal was confirmed as the author, as reported in the Another History of Bullfighting: Bulls, Law and Society (1235-1854), a comprehensive work that studies the evolution of bullfighting regulations based on charters, proclamations, ordinances and municipal agreements since the 13th century.
Who is coldly accustomed to seeing a man blown between the horns of a bull, opened by a horn, pouring out his entrails and watering the place with his blood?
Fragment of “Pan y Toros”, by León de Arroyal
The enlightened current also had bullfighters in its ranks, such as Antonio Campmany, who in 1813 was the protagonist of a heated debate in the Cortes of Cádiz in favor of bullfighting after a request for the abolition of bullfights and bullfights. The discussion took place as a result of a “serious incident” that occurred in the Caleta bullring on April 25 of that year and was promoted, through a proposal, by the priest and deputy Simón López, known for his aversion to bullfighting shows and also to the theater (he considered it a mortal sin). This failed and, although there were other attempts, none were successful. The ban was failing.
After the War of Independence, although the restrictions persisted, they remained in practice a “dead letter”. In fact, the Constitution of Cádiz itself was celebrated in many places with bullfighting celebrations,” Badorrey explains in Another History of Bullfighting: Bulls, Law and Society (1235-1854). Furthermore, from the first decades of the 19th century, bullfighting began to become a business. They remained in the hands of businessmen and were no longer free to charge an entrance fee.
Change your perspective: think about the animal
Throughout all these centuries, compassion for animals has been left aside. The argument based on rights only dates back two centuries and is located at a very specific moment: the birth of the Animal Protection Societies. “Then, the emphasis shifts from thinking about the spectator, like all the previous centuries with different arguments, to thinking about the animal and its suffering,” summarizes Marchena Domínguez.
The first of these societies was created in 1824 in London and others appeared later in Europe. Spain saw its own birth in 1872 in Cadiz; later in Madrid – whose headquarters are on Valverde Street –, in Seville and in Barcelona. “Brochures, writings and competitions were made to reward literary compositions of an animal nature. Pedagogy was very present. “They wanted to educate the little ones in protectionist values”, develops the historian of the University of Cadiz.
inferior beings [cuya portada puede verse en la foto] It was a children’s reading book composed of 35 short stories that promoted the values of protection and respect for animals. The fables tell stories of “dogs that save shipwrecked people or infallible guides.” In the stories, human beings dominated nature “but disposed of it with respect and love,” states a joint work, Animals in History and Culturecoordinated by Arturo Morgado García and José Joaquín Rodríguez Moreno.
León Quederriba was, according to Marchena Domínguez, one of the “leaders of the protectionist philosophy in Cadiz.” In Memorial in favor of picador horses He questions the bloody spectacle, the agony and death of a good number of horses at each bullfight and suggests protecting the animals with a breastplate that would cover their chest and belly to make the spectacle less bloody.
In the 1920s, the protective increase finally became mandatory. Until then, in each bullfight, between 15 and 20 horses could be seriously injured. “They put them inside and tried to sew them up, but you can see horses lying along the arena while the bullfight continues. So some bullfighting sectors are trying to find a solution,” explains Marchena Domínguez. Documents from the time show that the English travellers were passionate about horses but were shocked by the damage they suffered.
The work of the protectionists was intense but short-lived, according to historians. Spain then experienced a sort of The Silver Age of bullfighting and the bullfighter becomes an idol of the masses. A popular hero. In the midst of this environment and with the logical difficulties of opposing an increasingly popular party, some progress was nevertheless pursued. In 1924, the Iberian Federation of Animal and Plant Protection Societies was created, which allowed Spain and Portugal to work together during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
Later, during the Civil War, “everything was interrupted, everything disappeared at least until the first years of economic development,” explains Marchena Domínguez. Until 1997, a very important event occurred: the Declaration of Animal Rights. What follows is the known recent history. Two decades later, Catalonia took the pioneering initiative of banning bullfighting, in the midst of great controversy. It was the year 2010. For history scholars, this is the last major milestone against bullfighting that will be recorded in the books. In response to this ban, bulls were declared an intangible cultural heritage of Spain with the sole support of the Popular Party after a popular legislative initiative that collected 600,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, attendance at shows is stagnating in the rest of Spain, with no regulations banning them. The Catalan was overthrown in 2016 by the Constitutional Court, but today bullfights are non-existent. Across Spain, 412 celebrations took place in 2022, 26.5% fewer than a decade earlier. However, the use of livestock in popular city festivals is still present in 22% of Spanish municipalities, according to a study conducted by the organization AnimaNaturalis in collaboration with CAS International.
