On 3rd September 2022, dozens of activists gathered on the Passeig Born in Palma de Mallorca to protest against the bull run (correbou) in the town of Fornalutx and to demand its abolition. Fornalutx is a mountainous municipality on Majorca (Mallorca), one of the Balearic Islands, in Spain, and has traditionally staged bull runs during the Mare de Déu de Setembre festivities.
There has not been a bull run in this Balearic municipality since 2019 because of the pandemic, but it was scheduled for the 7th of September this year. The animal-rights party Progreso en Verde, which organised the protest, said that the return of the bull-run “is a step backwards and a further error by the parties that govern Mallorca, who have not been able to put an end to a practice that thousands of people abhor”.
Guillermo Amengual, the party’s president, said to the Majorca Daily Bulletin, “it is lamentable that they continue to mistreat animals at fiestas for the amusement of a few…After two years without it being staged, it was time to put an end to the Fornalutx correbou and move towards a society respectful of animals. It is shameful that a town hall continues to defend an event in which animals are mistreated.” Unfortunately, the brutal event took place, and although this sort of festival often causes human injuries and death, on this occasion only the animals were the victims.
In 2016, the Mallorca Sense Sang campaign gathered more than 350,000 signatures in support of the banning of the Fornalutx correbou and all kinds of shows in which animals are mistreated. In 2017 the Balearic Island passed a law that effectively banned bullfighting, but in 2019 it was repealed by the Spanish Constitutional Court (which did the same in Catalonia but this did not stop the abolition of bullfighting there).
