Purges and drugs, blows to the kidneys with sandbags, filing down of the horns to heighten their sensitivity to pain, turpentine on the hooves, petroleum jelly in the eyes and on the nasal mucous membranes, pins driven into the testicles.

These are just some of the acts of torture inflicted on bulls before they enter the arena to take part in what is described as a "folkloric spectacle of cultural interest" — the corrida.

Until now, these acts of torture, inflicted on herbivorous animals with a gentle and docile nature, were funded with contributions from European citizens. Every year, the European Community, as part of its agricultural policies, allocated as much as 129.6 million euros to fund the breeding of bulls for bullfighting in Spain, France and Portugal.

On Wednesday 28 October, the turning point finally came. With 438 votes in favour and 199 against, the European Parliament approved an amendment scrapping the subsidies for breeders of fighting bulls.

The decision came after years of protests; in 2013 the association Animalisti Italiani Onlus had launched a campaign against bullfighting and the waste of European public money, highlighting how funds that should go towards supporting agriculture were instead contributing to the torture and killing of at least 40,000 bulls a year.

Last year a similar amendment had been rejected due to the lack of the required quorum, as 58 abstaining MEPs had allowed the funding to be approved. Despite the interruption of funding, the Spanish state continues to assert the traditional cultural value of bullfighting. It is therefore likely that it will make up for the loss of European funds with its own allocations.

The figures, however, point to the inexorable decline of this barbarity: 72 per cent of Spaniards are reported to be in favour of abolishing bullfighting — "spectacles" that now rely almost entirely on tourists.

The road ahead is still long; setting bullfighting aside, there are numerous deeply rooted festivals across Europe that involve the exploitation of various animal species, but change is under way and one day we will no longer need to inflict pain and death for our entertainment.