, director of 91亚色鈥檚 (IRIS), also dismissed as 鈥渞ubbish鈥� assertions by the Animal Alliance of Canada that non-lethal interventions like discouraging feeding and erecting better fences have successfully cut problem deer numbers at the Sifton Bog in London, Ont.

A biology professor in 91亚色鈥檚 , Bazely said London politicians backed down from a deer hunt favoured by neighbouring residents last year after a councillor and opponents denounced shooting deer as barbaric and 鈥渨orse than abortion.鈥�

She accused Animal Alliance of exploiting the 鈥淏ambi鈥� emotional factor and ignoring the damage deer are doing at Iroquois Heights, where an aerial survey in January of last year counted 102 in a 66-hectare section, 90 more than considered healthy.

鈥淲hy aren鈥檛 they campaigning for cockroaches?鈥� said Bazely, who outlined the impact deer have on forest ecology and biodiversity to a Hamilton Conservation Authority committee that is considering how to deal with the deer population. 鈥淲e exterminate other single species. Where鈥檚 the campaign for rats? Where鈥檚 the campaign for raccoons?鈥�

During her presentation, Bazely said it鈥檚 鈥渘ot debatable鈥� that deer populations of more than 10 per square kilometre kill future trees because they eat any new growth up to two metres above ground. They also devour native plants like trillium, allowing invasive plants to take over, she said. 鈥淭he entire middle layer of the forest, it鈥檚 not there any more,鈥� she said.

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On the surface, the ban was about animal welfare. But more than anything, it was about Catalonia asserting its identity as distinct from greater Spain.

鈥淎 Catalan nationalist movement emerged in the 1850s,鈥� says Adrian Shubert, a historian in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. 鈥淭he Catalans saw themselves as more sophisticated, more European, [and] more advanced economically than the rest of the country.鈥�

And the future, to the Catalans, was to be European, and being European meant no more bullfights. Bullfighting was a symbol of Spanish backwardness, of barbarity, a tradition unbecoming a progressive people鈥�. Goya celebrated it in paintings. Federico Lorca, the poet, embraced it with verse. Lorca was executed during the Spanish Civil War, a bloody conflict that ended with the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

鈥淔ranco detested the Catalans,鈥� Shubert says. 鈥淗e saw them as separatists and a threat to the unity of the Fatherland.鈥�

Under Franco, the Catalan language was banned in public, and banished from media. Nationalism went underground and wouldn't emerge again until after the general's death in 1975.

Almost four decades later, a new civil war is being waged in Spain, and the first casualty is bullfighting. The debate that ended the blood sport played out in Catalonia's legislature for several months. Biologists, veterinarians, philosophers, writers 鈥� bullfighters 鈥� all were invited to address the politicians before the crucial ballot was cast. And when the votes were tallied, bullfighting, and the Spain behind it, was defeated 68-55.

The complete article is available on the .

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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