Correbous

While exploring the Catalan countryside, you may encounter posters announcing local events involving bulls. Before you google whether Catalonia has reversed its ban on bullfighting, it should be noted that yes, bullfighting in Catalonia is banned¹, but it's far from the only type of bull-bullying event in the Pyrenees.

Correbous², the Catalan version of bullfighting, is protected locally as a cultural heritage activity and thus, despite being a glaring example of animal cruelty packaged as entertainment, can be organized legally anywhere across Catalonia.

Unlike bullfighting, the correbous pits the animals against not professionally trained matadors, picadors, and banderilleros, but ten to fifteen young and nimble men who work hard to attract the attention of bulls only to run away and hide behind fences or artificial barriers placed on the arena. Neither are the correbous bulls big and monstrous animals of 600 kilos each who are bred and grown to die in a bullfighting pit. The correbous sometimes uses cows along with bulls as well. The main difference between bullfighting and the correbous is that at the end of the fight the tired animals leave the arena on their own, even if they are injured from being hit, rolled over and forced to run on uneven surfaces.

A closed-off arena is not the only stage suitable for the correbous. Some seaside pueblos organize arenas close to sea malls with the goal of luring the bulls into the water while they chase the humans who annoy them. This type of correbous is called bous al mar, or "a bull into the sea". Another type involves tying two pieces of rope to a bull's horns to drag it along the street or to maneuver it away from someone's bare back. That one is called el capllaçat. And once the sun sets, it is time for el toro embolat, "a bull on fire", when lit torches are attached to a bull's horns instead. A version of the well-known encierro, popularized by the bull run in Pamplona, exists in the correbous program as well.

Attending events like that can easily destroy an unprepared visitor's faith in humanity, and indeed, many Catalans do not share the conviction in the necessity of preserving the traditions that are rooted in animal violence and humiliation. Today, the correbous is highly popular only in the south of Tarragona, where correbous in some shape or form takes place over 200 times per summer. Elsewhere in Catalonia, the lovers of bullfighting are mostly out of luck: in Girona, the correbous can be witnessed only in Vidreres, on a Saturday and a Sunday of its fiesta mayor, meaning two performances a year across the whole province.

¹⁾The ban on bullfighting in Catalonia was deemed unconstitutional on October 20, 2016.
²⁾Correbous is also known as bous al carrer.