Bullfighting may become a thing of the past in Spain's Catalonia when the local parliament convenes on Wednesday and votes on a region-wide ban.The latest debate follows a December vote triggered under Catalan law by a petition which drew 180,000 signatures calling for a ban, organised by animal activist association Prou. Bullfighting has been losing popularity for some years in Barcelona and the northeastern region of Catalonia, which enjoys considerable autonomy and strongly promotes its own culture. Many Spaniards remain passionately devoted to bullfighting and a top bullfighter can still pack Barcelona's the bullring with 19,000 spectators. However, crowds there generally have been dwindling and one Barcelona arena has already closed and is being converted into a shopping mall. The long standing tradition has also been drawing increased opposition from animal rights activists and intellectuals who consider it to be cruel. Animal rights groups and anti-bullfighting campaigners cite a 2006 Gallup poll which showed that 72.1 percent of Spaniards were not interested in bullfights, a proportion which rose to 81.7 percent for those aged 15-24.
