An estimated 1,000 farms are breeding animals for bullfighting across the EU. Since 2003, EU farm subsidies have mostly been allocated on the amount of land farmed, rather than output or the final destination of products.īulls on a Spanish farm. To remove the funds altogether would require animal welfare to be an official competence of the EU, coupled with a law that would ban the raising of bulls for this purpose or prohibit bullfighting altogether, added Moran.Īn EU official said that while there were no funds specifically designated for breeding bulls for fighting, “it is not excluded”, and bull breeders could still receive public funds from agricultural funding. In fact, I would say they’re impossible.” Joe Moran at animal advocacy organisation Eurogroup for Animals said: “While we agree with the MEPs entirely in their moral outrage and what they’re trying to do, the legal avenues to do this are pretty difficult. More than six years later, however, there has been little change, with the ban set aside over concerns that it would modify the legal provisions of the CAP.

In 2015, in a move welcomed by animal rights campaigners who described bullfighting as a “ cruel practice”, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of blocking agricultural funds “for the financing of lethal bullfighting activities”.

Spain’s Unión de Criadores de Toros de Lidia, which represents the interests of 347 breeders, has estimated that a ban on the subsidy payout would mean an economic hit of around €200m (£170m) a year for the sector across Europe.

Raising bull