Fifty-one years after the Spanish state television broadcaster TVE showed its first bullfight, it has announced that it will not show bullfighting while children are viewing. 

The move is a response to new regulations which call on broadcasters to avoid showing children both behavior that is dangerous to their health and explicitly violent. The public broadcaster will continue to show bullfighting highlights late at night.

Leah Garcés, Director of Programs, comments, “WSPA is delighted with TVE's decision to stop showing bullfights during the day and early evening.  This admission that bullfighting is unsuitable for children suggests the state TV station has recognized the cruelty involved in this sport.  It also reflects the findings of a recent Gallup poll which showed a significant shift in feelings amongst the Spanish people against this barbaric form of entertainment”.

40,000 bulls are killed in bullrings every year across Europe – in France, Spain and Portugal. The latest Gallup polls in Spain have shown that 72.1% of the general public have no interest in bullfighting, rising to 80.7% in Catalonia.

Garcés continues, “This is a major step forward for the anti-bullfight movement in Spain, and will undoubtedly boost the efforts of WSPA and the Asociación Defensa Derechos Animal (ADDA) to achieve a ban on bullfighting in Catalonia.”

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