MADRID — Spain has banned bullfights and erotic shows for bachelorette parties involving people with dwarfism.
Bullfights, which are also regularly held in the countryside for the entertainment of children, pit heifers against undersized matadors rather than adult bulls.
Erotic shows featuring people with achondroplasia, the most common genetic mutation that causes short limbs, are also banned under the Disability Rights Act.
MEPs voted in favor of the law by 153 votes to three and 100 abstentions in Spain’s upper house on Wednesday. Before coming into force, the law will be submitted to Parliament for final reading.
As social attitudes in Spain have changed in recent years, these events have become less attractive.
Spain hosted 11 “humorous bullfights” in 2019, compared to five two years earlier. Las Ventas, Spain’s main bullring, canceled the show last September after only 37 tickets were sold.
The shows violated the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Spain signed.
Disability rights activists have welcomed the ban, saying that bullfights and erotic shows demean people with limited height.
“These shows make fun of us and make us look like clowns. But clowns can take off their disguises. For us, this is real life 24 hours a day,” said Marta Castillo, President of the Spanish Committee for the Disabled. I.
“This is an amazing achievement for people with disabilities in the 21st century.”
However, Diversiones en el Ruedo manager Daniel Calderón, who is also a bullfighter, defended the tradition.
“I think these attacks show a lack of respect and freedom. Everyone should be able to work on what they want,” he said. El Pais.
The so-called “comic festivals” in Spain employ 189 people, according to the government. They are offered retraining under the program proposed by the local government.
Felipe Orviz, president of the Association for Achondroplasia and Skeletal Dysplasia with Dwarfism, said a disturbing aspect of these shows is that actors’ disabilities are being “commercialised” for sale.
“As a country, we must put an end to this indecent behavior. It shames us as a society,” he said. I.
Jesús Martín Blanco, Director General of Disability Affairs at the Spanish Ministry of Social Rights, said the government should stop activities that make fun of people with dwarfism. “Any decent government should take action to stop the spectacle that 4ft 10in is laughable,” he said.
Animal rights activists also supported the ban.
Aida Gascon of Animanaturalis tweeted about the vote in the Spanish Parliament.
However, bullfighting is protected as part of Spanish culture by a law passed in 2013 by the then conservative government.
Activists plan to challenge this legal defense of the controversial blood sport if animal rights sympathizers win the next election, due in December.
Source: I News
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