Animal rights activists are celebrating after Catalonia's parliament voted to ban bullfights in the region.

Minutes after learning about the decision a group of members of Equanimal and the Pro Animals and Anti bullfight Party (PACMA) opened bottles of champagne in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square and toasted to what theyconsider a triumph in their fight against mistreatment of animals.

The president of PACMA Mireya Barbeito said: "We sell the image of bulls internationally. What we should sell is the image of an alive bull not of a dead bull, the image of an animal ritualised torture. That's is a sign of underdevelopment."

But looking very angry, a man who identified himself as Barrachina, said that bullfighting should never disappear in Spain: "I am Spanish, Spanish and Spain's national celebration is bullfighting. And whom ever doesn't like that, should leave the country. Do you understand? those are four little s***ty politicians from Catalonia who want to affect all Spaniards."

Lawmakers delivered the death blow to bullfighting in Catalonia on Wednesday, outlawing the centuries-old blood sport for the first time in a mainland region of Spain.