Few figures in the performing arts have woven animal-rights activism as tightly into their career as Morrissey. Even before stepping on stage, the former Smiths frontman is already making waves in Spain. Just days before performing in Barcelona and Madrid, the British musician has sent a letter to the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, urging him to help bring bullfighting to an end.
The singer, a vegetarian since his adolescence and one of the most combative voices in defence of animals for decades, asks the head of the Spanish government to use his "influence" to put an end to a tradition which, in his view, "still tarnishes" Spain's international image. "Please," he writes in the letter, "do something the whole world will love: end this barbarity".
The letter, released with the support of the animal-rights organisation PETA, comes at a time when bullfighting has returned to the centre of the political debate. On 15 July, a group of 52 MPs once again registered in the Congress of Deputies the citizens' initiative (source in Spanish) "Not My Culture", which calls for bullfights to be stripped of their status as protected cultural heritage. The proposal had already won the backing of more than 715,000 signatures.
