27.10.09

Together with our Ecuadorian colleague organization PAE (Protección Animal Ecuador), CAS International recently asked the company Cedatos/Gallup International to do an opinion poll on bullfighting in Ecuador.

The results were as expected: just as in the other bullfighting countries, the majority of the inhabitants of Ecuador is against bullfighting. 77% of the respondents does not like bullfighting and 64% is against it. 91% of the respondents state that they think bulls and horses are maltreated and therefore suffer during bullfights, 68% thinks a national law should ban bullfighting in Ecuador and 60% would like their municipality to declare itself 'Anti-Bullfighting Municipality', just like 85 other municipalities in the bullfighting countries.

"Do you like bullfighting?" In entire Ecuador, 77% says "No" and in Guayaquil, even 85% says "No" © CAS/PAE

Because Ecuador is a catholic country, we also asked the respondents what they think about the fact that the bullfighting industry uses symbols of the catholic church and that they organize fiestas to honour catholic saints. 83% states that they don't like this and that they do not want this to happen anymore. We also regularly hear that the people in the bullfighting countries (especially in Spain) cannot imagine festivals without bullfighting, but in Ecuador, only 5% of the people think that bullfights are part of the festivities in their municipality. They think parades, dancing and other festivities are much more important.  

CAS International wants to canvass opinion polls in all bullfighting countries, because we can use these positive results to lobby politicians, convince the catholic church to withdraw their support to the bullfighting industry, to inform the media (which are very often pro-bullfighting in these countries) and the public, etc.

In December 2008, we did an opinion poll in Peru and we found out that 68% of the inhabitants of Peru is against bullfighting. In 2010, we would like to do a poll in Colombia. We would like to use the results to convince politicians to abolish bullfighting in Colombia, instead of considering it cultural heritage.

Would you like to give a donation for this opinion poll and/or our other campaigns? Please visit our donations page. Thank you very much for your support!