Spain bans bullfighting with people with dwarfism

2023-04-27 19:31:00

The Spanish Parliament approved, this Thursday (27), a law banning shows by “fighting dwarfs” and all those considered degrading for people with disabilities, causing protests among professionals in the sector.

The law, approved with the support of the left and the right, determines that “shows or recreational activities with the use of people with disabilities or this circumstance to provoke ridicule, scorn or mockery in the public are prohibited”.

Immediately before, the text provides that “persons with disabilities will participate in public shows and recreational activities, including bullfights, without discrimination or exclusion”.

Although the measure has a general character, it affects in particular the comic shows of bullfights with people with dwarfism, which, even though they have lost popularity, persist, especially during the festivals of patron saints.

Groups like “Diversions in the arena and their bullfighting dwarves” consider that the law deprives them of a means of subsistence and defend that their activity is like any other bullfighting activity.

“We are bullfighters, we are artists, no more prohibitions,” the group published on Facebook this week, calling for protests against the law.

The Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (Cermi), one of the promoters of the ban, had already managed in recent months to cancel some festivities.

When one of them was suspended in January, the Association of Bone Dysplasias with Dwarfism of Spain (ADEE) described these presentations, in a statement, as “vexatious and decadent, aimed at mockery and mockery”.

“This comic show is not innocuous. It perpetuates the image of people with achondroplasia as playful and laughable beings that only serve that purpose”, he added.