On Sunday, 20 000 bullfighting fans packed Barcelona’s La Monumental bullring to watch the last corrida that Catalonia will hold; the event was headlined by Spain’s premier matador, José Tomás. The regional ban on bullfighting, which was approved at the end of last year, goes into effect in January.

After the various matadors killed the bulls they were assigned to, spectators swarmed the grounds, many grabbing fistfuls of sand as souvenirs.

While the Catalonian regional Parliament largely based the banning of bullfights on reasons of animal rights, the industry as a whole has suffered of late; says the NYT;

the woes of the bullfighting business have also been acutely felt in the countryside, where bull breeders are enduring the same boom-and-bust situation that has unfolded in Spain’s property sector.

The move is seen to as a further attempt to differentiate Catalan regional politics from the remainder of Spain. The Catalan ban has, however, spurred greater animal rights activism in the rest of the country, where various methods of killing bulls are still celebrated.

[Source: NYT]