Catalonia Bullfighting Ban: Spain's First Bullfighting Ban, Video

The vote culminated a public initiative to ditch bullfighting that began more than 1½ years ago and has drawn international media coverage. Backers of the ban erupted in cheers in the assembly chamber's gallery.

But critics have assailed the campaign for a ban as a pretext for more nakedly political and nationalist ends. They suspect the true motive is a desire to poke a stick in the eye of the rest of Spain, an assertion of Catalan identity as different.

The result will energize animal rights groups bent on seeking bans in other regions of Spain.

"The suffering of animals in the Catalan bullrings has been abolished once and for all. It has created a precedent we hope will be replicated by other democratic Parliaments internationally, in those regions and countries where such cruel bullfights are still allowed," said Leonardo Anselmi of PROU, the animal rights groups whose signature-collecting campaign late last year forced Catalonia's Parliament to debate and vote.