Ban on Bullfighting lifted

MADRID: Bullfights returned to Spain on Wednesday after a six-year suspension.

Its main channel TVE had stopped showing the fights in 2006, blaming the high price of broadcasting rights, a dwindling audience, and the fact that they usually take place during children's viewing hours.

After a conservative Popular Party government took power last December, changed the rules, removing bullfights from the category of "violence against animals".

Bullfighting has been on the decline for years in Spain, with a 2010 survey in leading newspaper showing 60 percent of respondents opposed the practice.

Barcelona's ring held its final bullfight in September last year after the Catalonia region banned bullfighting, the second Spanish region to do so after the Canary Islands.(AFP)