A Spanish animal rights activist group staged a ‘bloody’ flash-mob in the city of Valencia this weekend to demand an end to the controversial Spanish tradition of bullfighting as this year’s season kicks off.
Around a dozen horned protesters—largely female—stripped down to their underwear in front of Valencia City hall on Sunday before dousing themselves in fake blood from buckets that bore the slogans “Valencia: bloodbath for bulls” and “The Fallas are soaked in blood.”
Speaking to Unruly TV, a spokesperson for the group Anima Naturalis said the purpose of the event was to “demonstrate all the blood that is spilled these days in the ‘Fallas.”
The Falles is an annual festival held in Valencia in honor of St Joseph—the saint patron of carpenters—where life-like wooden, cardboard, papier mache and plaster statues (known as “ninots” for “puppets”) are paraded around the city before being set ablaze at night.
In addition to the traditional burnings, the festival include a five-day roster of bullfights, paella contests and beauty pageants all around the city.
But for the activists “it is not necessary to spill blood to enjoy a party like ours here in Valencia.”
The visually potent protest comes amid growing momentum in Spain against the practice of bullfighting—a centuries old tradition—which many young animal rights defenders decry as cruel and senseless.
An Ipsos Mori poll conducted in January for animal welfare group World Animal Protection found that 58 percent of adults in Spain oppose the practice, Reuters reported. As a result, demonstrations like these have become more and more frequent.
According to the Associated Press, “at least 17 Spanish cities and towns have cut municipal funding for bullfights and bull runs, or passed legislation condemning or banning it since the new leftist party Podemos won its first seats in local and regional elections a year ago.”
Despite the backlash, bullfighting still has fervent proponents in the country, with their own lobbying group made of breeders and aficionados who claim that “corridas”—the highly ritualized spectacle of matadores baiting and killing bulls in an arena—is an ancient art and a part of Spanish history that should be preserved.