Rita Silva, president of ANIMAL, the association in Portugal that heads the network in the country, told Lusa that the organisation "vehemently opposed any kind of violence" and that "children who are subjected to attending and working in this culture [of bullfighting] are exposes to a kind of violence that they should not be."


She recalled that a United Nations committee in February last year warned Portugal that allowing children to attend bullfights was in contravention of the UN Rights of the Child, and recommended that it restrict their access as either participants or spectators.


A law in effect in Portugal since April this year sets 16 as the youngest that anyone can take part or assist in a bullfight, while a law in effect since February last year established 12 as the minimum age to attend such a spectacle.


The Network is to attend a meeting with members of parliament on Tuesday at which it will call for the abolition of bullfighting, as well as the protection of children, and also demanding that public funds not be used to fund the activity.

The Left Bloc party, which is organising the meeting, pledged in its election manifesto, published on Sunday, to end all public funding for bullfights and to start converting the country's bullrings for other uses.