Mexico City lawmakers on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to ban violent bullfighting, triggering outrage from aficionados and celebration from animal rights advocates. The legislation, approved by a 61-1 vote, prohibits the killing of bulls and the use of sharp objects that could injure the animals. It also sets time limits on how long bulls could be in the ring, all part of an initiative dubbed "bullfighting without violence." The decision sparked angry protests from bullfighting supporters and matadors, some of whom shouted angry slogans behind a police barricade. Meanwhile, animal rights protesters and lawmakers pushing the bill celebrated, walking out onto the steps of Mexico City's Congress pumping their fists. "It is the struggle of many years of many activists," said Sofía Morín, one of the promoters of the initiative and member of Culture without Torture. "In addition, it is the first citizens' initiative to be voted on in the history of Mexico City." Tuesday’s vote appeared to be an attempt to broker a compromise between two warring sides of the debate after years of back-and-forth about the practice. Bullfighting has long been considered a tradition and a pastime in Latin American nations but has come under criticism for animal cruelty because bulls are often killed at the end of the fight. Animal rights groups say that approximately 180,000 bulls are killed every year in bullfighting worldwide. The tradition, which has long drawn big crowds to arenas across Mexico, was dealt a blow when a judge in Mexico City banned the practice in June 2022, shutting down an arena that has been billed as the world’s largest bullfighting ring. The judge ruled that bullfights violated city residents' rights to a healthy environment free from violence. While animal rights advocates celebrated it as a victory, and a step toward ending the bloody tradition, bullfighters said it dealt an economic blow to the city. The National Association of Breeders of Fighting Bulls in Mexico says bullfighting generates 80,000 direct jobs, and 146,000 indirect jobs across the country. Overall the industry generates approximately $400 million a year. In 2023, Mexico’s Supreme Court overturned the ban without explanation, allowing bullfighting arenas to be flooded once again with fans of the so-called "fiesta brava." On Tuesday, Jesús Sesma, a local lawmaker of Mexico's Green Party, acknowledged that there was a section of the city that would be angered by the decision in a speech to a crowd of people before the city's congress. "To all those families feel frustrated today, we're here to say that no one lost their jobs," he said. "There was a middle ground to continue with these bullfighting spectacles, but now without violence." AP Video shot by Fernanda Pesce