Catalunya bull-fighting ban overturned by national Constitutional Court

Eight votes in favour of overturning the bull ban to three against have overruled Catalunya's regional Parliament, whose decision to prohibit what it considers to be animal torture for human entertainment was appealed against by the PP-led national government.

Although it is unlikely Catalunya will go back on its word now – given that the ban was originally in response to a public opinion poll – it does mean the regional government will have little power to stop bull-fighting happening within its territory if an association attempts to stage it.

The judges who voted to invalidate the ban said Catalunya, as a region, has the jurisdiction to regulate bull-related spectacles, but not to prohibit them altogether.

And Spain's national Parliament has declared bull-fighting to be 'cultural heritage', meaning its protection against attempts like Catalunya's to thwart it is armour-plated.

Reactions from the public have come in thick and fast.

Some say the verdict will lead to even more Catalunya residents backing their region's independence bid, and others say if anyone in Catalunya really cannot live without bull-fights, they can hop over the regional borders into Valencia and Aragón to watch it.