REVEALED: European Union pays bullfighters MILLIONS of pounds – courtesy of us
THE EUROPEAN Union has provoked more anger by reportedly spending £13.5million of taxpayers' money on bullfighting.
Animal rights charities have hit out at the EU for funding bullfighters
Bull breeders – who receive our money due to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy – rear the animals to be subjected to cruelty at Spanish fiestas, according to reports.
Animal rights charities claim that 10,000 bulls are killed every year by the barbaric tradition, which often sees them chased and cornered before being beaten and stabbed.
The group Animal Equality conducted an underground investigation into the Spanish fiestas, which are not under the same controls as the established fights.
A spokesman slammed the cruel practice, saying: "I will never forget how I watched two groups fighting over who was going to kill the bull.
"They began to fight as long as the bull was still in agony."
Bull-fighting "would not survive" without EU money, according to Carlos Nunez
They began to fight as long as the bull was still in agony
Carlos Nunez, president of the Spanish Union of Fighting Bull Breeders, claimed that bullfighting "would not survive" without EU money.
He said: "It not only sustains a central part of our culture, but keeps hundreds of people in work."
The practice is protected by its special cultural status, controversially awarded by Spanish parliament in 2013.
In 2011 Catalonia became the second Spanish region to ban bullfighting, joining the Canary Islands, which outlawed the practice in 1991.