In Spain, where bullfighting is almost as popular as soccer, each village boasts of its own bullring. A bullring is like a stadium where bullfights have the seal of approval by being known as the ``fiesta nacional''. Indeed, some may call the anti-bullfighting campaign a mission impossible,

especially when King Juan Carlos and his mother are among the nation's most enthusiastic supporters.

``It'll be very long,'' acknowledged Alfonso Chilleron, 45, President of the National Association for the Protection and Well-Being of Animals (ANPBA), which is at the forefront of the battle.

Denouncing infringements on theregulations governing what happens inside the bullring, the association has lobbied officials at the interior ministry, which oversees bullfighting matters. It is this ministry which lays down rules for the corrida and all other events involving bulls, which include running them through the streets, as in Pamplona, tying torches to the horns in the ``toro de fuego'', and dragging animals by the horns as ``toros ensogados''. With the corrida and other events, nearly 40,000 bulls die each year in Spain, the ANPBA says.

The organisation last week drew up a list of 90 complaints against matadors, picadors and banderilleros for breaking the rules during the prestigious Feria de San Isidro, which takes place in Madrid from May to June.

The group says it aims to ``protect the bulls from suffering even more than is permitted by the regulations''. Its demand, says the ANPBA, is for the legitimate interests of bulls to be respected as conscious creatures which are unjustly punished.

And it denounces acts such asthe ``ruedas de peones'' where, the group claims, the bull is tormented with the cape to speed up its death after the estocada, or stabbing.

Last year in Seville, the Andalusian matador Curro Romero, who has been a living legend for 65 years, tried 15 times to kill a bull with the ``descabello'', a long dagger which is supposed to be sunk into the nape of the animal.

But the matador caught the side of the animal three times in the process.While Romero was fined just 25,000 pesetas (170 dollars), ANPBA demanded a higher penalty.

For its part, the interior ministry acknowledges that ``it fully shares the concerns of the group to find a more humane way of conducting bullfighting....

Chilleron says that he knows it's a long battle ahead, but says the group is setting its sights on gradual change - to stop the most cruel practices for a start. Meanwhile, other opponents have taken up a more ironic method of getting their message across, such as the Fan Club of Islero, which congratulates bulls on theinjuries they inflict on their human adversaries.

-- Agence France Presse