Angry protests at “barbaric” bullfights in French towns

The Times reports of angry protests at the barbarity of bullfighting which still takes place in towns across south-western France because it is legal to do so on the basis that it is a local tradition despite the fact that a court ruling stated that it constitutes cruelty to animals.

Protests against bullfights in Arles France
Protests against bullfights in Arles, France. Image: PETA UK.

Demonstrators marched against bullfighting and a spokesman for the Bridget Bardot Foundation which organised a protest in Bayonne in Basque country, said: “Killing animals by making them suffer for entertainment is pure barbarity.”

Please click on the link to see the image. I have chosen a mild bullfighting image.

Bullfighting in France. Image: AFP.

RELATED: Brave Brigitte Bardot’s Fight for Animal Welfare

In Bayonne, the local council paid €800,000 for 40 bulls which will be killed this week and to pay the bullfighters’ wages. As the news leaked out about this, the protest began.

A television presenter, Aymeric Caron, who was elected to Parliament last month with the radical left France Unbowed party renewed a drive to ban bullfighting last week.

He wants to table a bill (a proposed law) in Parliament but it was denounced by the National Rally who see the campaign as another attempt by the Parisian elite to stop a cherished tradition.

The member of Parliament for Nimes, Nicolas Meizonnet, said: “Green ayatollahs like Aymeric Caron would be better off fighting intensive farming or ritual animal slaughter, which kills thousands of animals a year with atrocious suffering.”

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has not voiced his views on the matter, I guess deliberately.

Comment: of course, I am completely in favour of the protests. I am a great fan of Bridget Bardot’s fight for animal welfare and her animal advocacy campaigns. And bullfighting is indeed barbaric. That’s obvious. I cannot be justified in 2022.

France has a somewhat backward approach to animal welfare, a bit like Spain in comparison to northern European countries such as the UK and the Scandinavian countries. They like hunting a lot during which a noticeable number of hunters themselves are sometime shot accidentally (or on purpose perhaps?).

It is unsettling to read that there is ritual animal slaughter by the thousand in France, annually. What the hell is this? What does this this politician mean? I believe that he means that in France 32% of animals are slaughtered without stunning. I presume that this is to satisfy Muslim traditions. Apparently 9% of the French population are Muslim. There is a same problem with animal slaughter in the UK where 4.2% of the population are Muslim. Vets have protested against the tradition. It is regarded as cruel. Why do we have to keep these ancient traditions that were okay centuries ago but not now? Answer: because we don’t want to upset Muslims for fear of starting riots.

Leave a Comment

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Speciesism - 'them and us' | Cruelty - always shameful
follow it link and logo

Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.

At heart this site is about ANTHROPOCENTRISM meaning a human-centric world.

Post Category: Animal cruelty