Spanish bullfighting industry threatens strike over mad cow policy

By Daniel Woolls, Associated Press, 7/16/2001 20:22

MADRID, Spain (AP) Matadors, breeders and other players in Spain's $4.5 billion a year bullfighting industry threatened Monday to go on strike over government restrictions designed to protect consumers from mad cow disease.

The industry is protesting a new policy that bans an age-old practice cutting up bulls right after they die in the ring and selling the meat and other body parts to butchers. It wants either monetary compensation or measures to allow sales to resume.

Talks with the Agriculture Ministry are scheduled for Thursday and if the industry's demands are not met an open-ended strike will begin July 24, a dozen industry associations said after a meeting in Madrid. July and August are Spain's busiest bullfighting months.

The ministry did not return a call seeking comment.

Spain instituted the meat sale ban because of new European Union health norms under which any cow or bull 30 months or older must be automatically tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy when slaughtered. An adult fighting bull is generally three or older.

Thousands of bulls are killed during the bullfighting season and there are not enough veterinarians in Spain to travel to far-flung bull rings and test every slain beast.

For big bullrings, where fights are televised, the revenue from meat is insignificant. But a 1,100-pound bull can fetch about $250 and smaller rings depend on meat sales to stay afloat.

Under the new policy, bull ring operators and fight promoters must also pay for transporting bull carcasses to have them incinerated. That costs about $3,600 per afternoon of bullfighting, when six animals are killed.

The government had been paying some compensation but the aid ran out on June 30.

Representatives of the bullfighting industry propose freezing the meat until it can be tested for mad cow, and if it clears, selling it. They are also asking that the government pay for transporting and incinerating the carcasses.

The mad cow disease surfaced in Spain late last year, and 30-odd cases have been reported among cows but none among the country's prized fighting bulls.

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2001