Spain's Animal Rights Party Wins Record Votes in election
An animal rights party in Spain won a record number of votes in weekend elections in a country where opposition to bullfighting is more and more vocal.
Nearly 285,000 people cast their ballot for PACMA -- or 1.2 percent of all votes -- though this is not enough for the party founded 13 years ago to enter parliament.
The grouping has long campaigned for an end to bullfighting in a country increasingly torn between animal rights activists who support abolition, and others who want to keep an age-old tradition going.
It has also denounced other "cruel" Spanish traditions involving animals, such as placing flammable balls on the horns of bulls, setting them on fire and letting the animals loose in the street.
PACMA was instrumental in getting authorities in the Spanish northern region of Castilla y Leon to ban the killing of bulls during traditional festivals, particularly the famed, controversial Toro de la Vega bull run.
This takes place every year in the town of Tordesillas and sees crowds on foot and horseback chase the animal, taking stabs at it with lances until they kill it.
Several regions or cities have put a stop to corridas or annual festivals with bull running over the years.
Other traditions involving animals, such as throwing a live goat off a tall church steeple to a crowd below that catches it in a sheet, have also been banned.
Party spokeswoman Laura Duarte told AFP the number of votes obtained was a "very good result" that underscored the rising interest in Spain of defending animal rights.
Support for PACMA has increased over the years. In 2011 elections, it got 102,000 votes, and in December polls, its score more than doubled to 220,000.
Source: Agence France Presse
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