The Parliament of Catalonia has today voted to ban bullfighting in the Northeastern Spanish region. With 68 votes in favour, 55 against and 9 abstentions, Catalonia has become the second region to outlaw bullfighting after the Canary Islands, which prohibited the practice in 1991.

The Popular Legislative Initiative, instigated by the platform Prou!, meaning "Enough!", and backed by 180,000 signatures from the Catalan people, started its passage through parliament on 11 November 2008. The ban takes effect from 2012.

The majority of the parliamentarians from the parties CIU, ERC and ICV-EUiA backed the bill, whilst the parties PSC, PP and a mixed group voted against the bullfight ban, including the Catalan regional president, Jose Montilla. The vote has attracted the attention of the world's media, with keen international interest in the proceedings right from the outset.

The bullfighting industry and its supporters are deeply worried by this ban, aware that this could now generate a domino effect across other regions of Spain - in Madrid the process to bring about its own Popular Legislative Initiative to ban bullfighting in the capital has just begun. Bullfighting still goes on in Spain, not because of public support as shown in the Gallup poll of 2007 in which 70% of Spaniards declared either no interest or disagreement with the practice, but through strong economic and political interests. Societies advance morally, and this demonstrates that the bullfighting industry's days are numbered.

Animal Equality would like to congratulate all those whose efforts have made this ban possible. We would also like to take advantage of this occasion to highlight the fact that a wider societal debate is both urgent and necessary, similar to that which has questioned and rejected bullfighting, in order to question and reject other less visible forms of animal exploitation, such as the confinement and slaughter of animals on farms, in slaughterhouses, laboratories, zoos or circuses.

Bullfighting is the tip of the iceberg of animal slavery, systematic and institutionalised slavery in which millions of animals are killed each day in order to satisfy society's demand for clothing, food, entertainment or experimental models. This form of slavery is one that can be halted right now by simply putting ourselves in the place of its victims and agreeing to no longer financially support the animal exploitation industries, instead opting for the ethical and viable alternative within our reach: veganism.