About 200 people demonstrated this Thursday evening in front of the bullring in Palma against bullfighting, coinciding with the celebration of a bullfight. The protest, called by Satya Animal and other animal welfare organizations, has particularly focused on the possibility of minors being able to access bullfighting events in the Balearic Islands.

Dozens of people gathered this Thursday afternoon in front of the Palma bullring to denounce animal abuse and demand an end to bullfights. The protest, called by Satya Animal with the support of other animal rights groups, took place a few hours before a new bullfight featuring bullfighters Diego Ventura, Morante de la Puebla, and Sebastián Castella.

The Franz Weber Foundation on Monday called for reflection on the permissiveness of allowing minors access to bullfighting events, such as the bullfight scheduled for March 29 in Inca, following a new warning issued a month ago by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. In its latest concluding observations on Spain, this UN body included an explicit reference to bullfighting within the section on "violence against children." The committee expressed its concern that children witness "the violence and death of participants during popular bullfighting events held throughout the country."

The General Directorate of Consumer Affairs has opened an investigation into the possibility of minors purchasing tickets to attend a bullfight in Muro, which would constitute a violation of the law regulating this type of event. This was reported on Thursday by the Franz Weber Foundation, which stated that the Directorate is studying the case after receiving a complaint regarding the online sale of tickets to minors. Last November, the international NGO sent a letter to the government indicating that the website offering tickets for the bullfight this Sunday, the 7th, in Muro allowed minors to purchase them without the prior requirement of parental or adult accompaniment. This situation would constitute a possible violation of the law regulating bullfights, which, since 2024, requires that any ticket for minors aged 0 to 16 be purchased with an adult. The company in charge of selling tickets now allows the process to be completed, even with fictitious data, and access discounted prices for children without an adult. This is compounded by a new warning from the FFW (Federation of Bullfighting Organizations). The regional regulations themselves prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages during bullfighting events, and the promoters of the bullfight have announced that they will distribute food during a break. This could be accompanied by alcohol, so animal rights activists will submit a new warning to Consum (the Spanish consumer protection agency) for their review. Furthermore, they regret that the Muro City Council has not taken any public action on the matter, given that it is a publicly owned property that has been leased to a foreign company, as it is based in Madrid, not even in the Balearic Islands, and has failed to take basic precautions regarding inspections and vineyards. The organization recalls that the concluding observations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child include an explicit request: to keep minors away from the violence of bullfighting. In this regard, they point out that the government has failed to comply with this observation since 2024, and none of its departments seem interested in monitoring compliance with the regrettable legal reform, which, three decades later, allows minors to enter bullrings to view explicit violence against animals and people.

The Franz Weber Foundation announced this Monday that it has filed a complaint with the Balearic Office for Children and Adolescents (OBIA) for the promotion of specific tickets for minors for the bullfight scheduled for Palma on August 7.