Alliance Anticorrida

Singer Céline Dion backs out…

Our Antibullfighting Alliance heard in October 2007, that Céline Dion had chosen young matador Matias Tejela to illustrate one of the songs from her new album Taking chances with a video clip. The killer was to appear, in a bullfighter costume, bare-chested and with a muleta in his hand, on a huge screen throughout the singer's 2008-2009 world tour.

The Antibullfighting Alliance launched a vast campaign leading to a polemic which soon snowballed through the medias and on line. Six days later, Céline Dion's record company assured us that: "although the choreography only showed the torero on a water surface, due consideration would be taken of our protests and the clip would not be released in its current version".

Eventually, be it in Boston, Montreal, Tokyo or Paris, the giant screen displayed neither clip nor matador in 2008 or 2009!

Your thanks to Céline Dion and Sony Music would be greatly appreciated.

• Sony music (bottom of page > send us feedback)
• contact@sonybmg.fr

Baby Matador Banned!

Michelito Lagravère, young bullfighter, only 10 years old, has performed in France on july 5th 2008! He was drawn to bullfighting since the age of five. Today, Michelito has killed 56 bulls, and has already scars. But French laws don’t permit anybody under the age of 16 to perform in a bullring, so today’s pre-pubescent toreros all come to perform in Mexico, where there are no such laws. Those baby bullfighters have begun getting top billing from promoters, who view them as a new way to bring people to the bullrings! (See the video in Fontvielle in 2007).

The Antibullfighting Alliance, applied to four public prosecutors and the ministry of justice to have the bullfights cancelled and succeeded in banning the baby matador twice, on august 2 and august 3rd. The two other shows given in small cities turned into capeas (no blood, no injuries for the bulls). The baby killer should have come back to France to perform on august 23. 30. and 31. But he gave up.

No blood, no money, no medias means no interest, of course! Let us remember that the Antibullfighting Alliance succedeed in preventing baby bullfighters under 16 from facing a bull in a bullring and managed to ban El Juli and Andy Cartagena from performing from 1995 to 1996. At our request, the law court fined the organiser of bullfights in Nîmes, owing to his previous performances.

Avignon and Nice say "NO"

After some visual communication display 4×3 in bullfighting cities – Nimes, Carcassonne or Arles – in 2004, 2006 and 2007, the Antibullfighting Alliance started again this year, for the 62nd Festival of Avignon.

Reminding that 73% of the French population is against bullfighting and only 27% of the Spanish show interest for bullfights, we intend, with such a campaign, to make the tourists refuse to attend bullfights. France’s EU presidency has to understand that a show with an animal tortured to death in a bullring, is not compatible with the values of brotherhood and progress conveyed by the european Union.

The Antibullfighting Alliance also campaigned in August, in Nice and lots of resorts of the French Riviera, in order to, once more, make the tourists and the foreigners aware of the pain imposed to an animal mutilated and tortured during 15 long minutes, in a severely violent and barbaric show.

half naked in front of the bullring !

An important event was organised in front of the bullring of Nîmes on July 1st. Half naked, some activists of PETA, supported by thirty activists of the Antibullfighting Alliance protested against the bullfights on the steps of the bullring.

In spite of the terrible heat, this ghoulish demonstration carried off a deep success among the mass media, the passers-by and the tourists on vacation. A great emotion was also present.

For a Europe Without Bullfights?

In reaction to the exhibition organized by the Spanish aficionados in the European Parliament, twenty-seven anti bullfighting movements were present, on June 4th and 5th in Brussels, for an international summit.

On June 4th, inside the Parliament, seven specialists, of which three eurodeputies - Caroline Lucas, David Hammerstein and Carl Schlyter - dismantled, one after another, all the arguments fluently moved forward by our adversaries whether it be on an economic, environmental, cultural or socio-political level. A static demonstration in the entry of the Parliament followed emphasizing the determination of all present movements and illustrating the international nature of the conflict.

During these two days, Alliance Antibullfight interfered again and again to share its strategies and its proposals with organisations from Portugal, from Spain, from Venezuela, from Mexico, Colombia, from Germany, from Holland, from England, from Ireland, from Switzerland and from Ecuador.

A good many of these movements have made the decision to come to Nîmes, September 13th, to participate in our big peaceful march. From their point of wiew, resolutely forward-looking, the European deputies made us solemn promises to continue conflict on all levels, particularly in the field of public subsidies allotted to the stockbreeders of bulls for the bullfights.

Anti-Bullfighting Air Campaign

On May 27 and 28. 2007, at the time of the big Feria in Nimes, Alliance Anticorrida organized an air campaign over all the area and particularly over the center of Nîmes to encourage the million visitors who go there each year, to flee the bullfights.

The aircraft flew over the crowded restaurants and bars, the Jardin de la Fontaine at the time of the water tournaments and over the suburbs where bull games and bullfighting were also organized.

In July and august 2007, two planes flew from Cerbere to Antibes, along the beaches targeting the holidaymakers. In all, 600km were covered and Anticorrida Alliance was able to deliver the message to millions of tourists.
This action had such an enormous impact that a lot of people have since thanked us for the idea and lots of medias covered that action.

Together, Let us Make Barcelona Fall!

On June 17, 2007,a huge demonstration was organized by our Catalan friends to contribute to making Barcelona fall! The date coincided with the return of the famous torero Jose Tomás; the bullfighting lobby had intentionally chosen the Monumental bullring to highlight Barcelona as a bullfighting city… Forty French people, united around the same cause, packed into the bus chartered by Alliance Anticorrida to bring support to their Catalan friends.

The atmosphere was festive and magical as 3 000 people poured into the Monumental amid cheers from the inhabitants to voice their opposition to those antiquated performances attended mainly by old people turned towards thepast. The young people of today in Spain and in other countries believe that civilization has no place for the torturing ofanimals.

On that very special day we were all of one voice as we shouted "Cataluna antitaurina" and "bullfight verguenza" with a single aim: the ratification by the government of the abolition of bullfights requested by the Catalans for over three years. The people in charge of the demonstration thanked us saying: "We made history. Now we can go to the Catalan Parliament with the images of the demonstration still in mind. Actually, the Parliamentary groups have already started to discuss the issue on June 19…"

For The First Time, In Arles…

After Nîmes, in 2004, Alliance Anticorrida revealed the other side of bullfighting - not the power and the glory - but the pathetic reality of a gruesome performance for the beginning of the 2006 ferias in Arles.

A large-scale anti-bullfighting poster campaign displayed fifteen 4×3 metre placards, during Easter, to coincide with the feria (fair) a week-long, non-stop celebration of corridas, bodegas and flamenco. The Alliance Antibullfighting hard-hitting posters aimed to make the public aware that this barbarous spectacle deserves no form of applause.
The campaign was launched on april 12th, official opening date of the Arles feria, and was advertised in a lot of medias.But on april 13th, all the photos were covered with paint… A significant gesture of aficionados showing that even themselves are ashamed of what they’re keen on… We’ve immediately lodged a complaint and bought new bills to be stuck up under police protection.

Even if this campaign cost 5 600 $, this unexpected event attracted lots more medias than we were due to get and marked a step in a long battle to expose the unpalatable truth of a tradition that has made Arles and Nîmes the main bullfighting arenas outside Spain.

No More Premiums for Bullfight Breeders

On March 17, 1995, Jacques Santer, president of the European Commission, wrote to us: "the conditions of granting of the premium to the fattening of the male bovines are met by the bulls of bullfight. However, since these assistances had not been designed for this type of animal, the Commission departments study measurements allowing the exclusion of the animals of bullfights of the benefit of these premiums."

In October 1997, the director of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities assured us that there was always a system of premiums to the beef and veal producers of the Member States of the Union including/understanding a "special premium" for the male bovines taken in a number limited in specific herds of races in order to be used within the framework of bullfights and to be intended later on for human consumption.

2006 was a great year for the Antibullfighting Alliance since the Parliament has just granted what we had been asking for so many years, namely the suppression of these special premiums.

It was, indeed, scandalous that subsidies, intended to safeguard the interest of the farmers are diverted from their use and assigned to cruel plays. Moreover, to allocate these subsidies went against what is stipulated in the European Convention of Protection of the livestock, Directive 98/58/EC of the Council, which establishes that the animals should undergo neither maltreatment, nor fear, nor suffering.

With the request of the Greens, Thursday, October 27, 2006, during the plenary session concerning the budget of the European Union in Strasbourg, the Parliament approved an amendment, by a vote of 277 for and 266 against proposing not to grant special premiums to the bulls intended for the bullfights any longer. David Hammerstein, Spanish green MP, declared: "It is clear that these conditions were not met in the case of the bulls known as of combat".

Today, while knocking on the door currency, we have the hope of reaching a decisive stage toward the abolition of the bullfight. The final decision will have to be validated by the Council of European Ministers.

It is now a question of putting pressure on the governments of the European Union.

You can write to:

• UK: secretaryofstate@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Example of sample letter:

France: Proposal of a Bill in Parliament

One recent progress for the anti-bullfighting struggle is the 4 June 2004 proposal of a bill in parliament seeking to close the legal loophole that allows bullfighting.
The bill has been proposed by a deputy, Mrs Marland-Millitello, of the ruling UMP party,and has already been signed by 67 members of the French Parliament. You can sign on this website http://www.petition-anticorrida.com

Parading Roped Bulls is Banned!

The Alliance Antibullfighting has won its case! The Court of Montpellier has just rejected an appeal against the banning of "taureau à la corde" in five cities of the Hérault department (South of France).

This degrading and humiliating event, in which a lassoed bull is dragged through village streets to be yelled at by a noisy mob, often involving injury to the bull along the way (bruised or broken tendons), was, at our request only, originally banned on April, 11, 2000 by the Prefect of Montpellier, following an 18-month inquiry launched by the Alliance.

On November, 20, 2000, those five cities (Saint Geniès de Mourgues, Lansargues, Baillargues, Candillargues and Lunel-Viel), backed by the CPNT party (Hunting Fishing Nature Traditions) filed an appeal with the Civil Court of Montpellier asking for the decree to be revoked.

On March, 2, 2004, the court rejected the appeal of the mayors of the five cities, supported by CPNT, on the basis that bull parading was, as Alliance evidence suggested, "a performance involving violence of a nature likely to injure a roped animal but conducted entirely without veterinary supervision, and as such, represented a threat to public order".
We wholeheartedly applaud their decision!

No Demonstrations in Paris and Moscow

In June 2002, were to be organised capeas (with no actual bullfighting) in the Stade de France in Paris Saint-Denis…

Although the director of major events for the Stade, Jean-Christophe Giletta, said: "There is no question of any bulls being put to death" he also added "This is an entertainment for lovers of the bullfight" this kind of event would have glorified bullfighting, whether blood there is or not, and would have been a preliminary to bullfighting taking place there, maybe the year after, depending on how it was received in Paris.

That’s why Alliance Anticorrida campaigned from may 2001 asking the director, the president of the consortium and the mayor of Saint Denis to send us the authorization for such an event to take place! We even brought a case and made about 600 persons protest with e-mails and letters.

And on December 17, great victory! Patrick Braouzec, mayor of Saint-Denis, sent us a letter to inform us that: "Due to the great deal of letters and mails received, the Consortium had decided not to organise anymore feria or any kind of bullfights in The Stade de France".

We had asked you to react so many times on our mailing list and our website.
We are pleased to inform you that the mayor of Moscow, Louri Loujkov, has just cancelled the bullfights organised on 8 and 9 september 2001 due to the protest of a large number of societies for the protection of animals and the Orthodox Church.

In Moscow, capital of Russia, had to be organised all types of bullfights (on foot, Portuguese ones, and horses with a French rider, Lydia Artamont) in a portable ring. All the visas were delivered and the Russian organisers were sure it would attract lots of people. Think of the transport of the bulls from Spain to Russia! About three days, tied, without drinking…
Thanks for having reacted with dignity in your name and in the name of Alliance, writing what you think about such a strange idea to export those shameful entertainments.

No More Charity Bullfights!

A fantastic victory of Alliance, after having campaigned for 15 months against Charity bullfights which are more and more set to raise funds for AIDS,the paralysed, the handicapped children or whatever. May be to have an alibi.

The horrible afeitado (see below) is legal during those so called festivals.
In 1998 we succeeded in making the Paralysed of France drop this fundraising. Here’s what the director wrote to us: "We’re glad to announce you that, owing to your campain, we won’t accept any funds due to the sufferings of any animals anymore". Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs from the south-west of France, to help another association against genetical diseases, accepted fundraising from the rent of cushions so that people can attend bullfights in being comfortable!

In Lunel, 25kms from Nîmes, took place, in Feb 2000 and march 2001, one of those charity bullfights for a French well known society, ADOT, which aim is to get organs. Antibullfighting Alliance campained in writing to the president and in sending back our cards. After a lot of press cuttings the president wrote to us, on may 21st 2001: "Due to your emotion and reproach, we’ve made the decision to give up any income from entertainments which causes the sufferings of animals, especially bullfights". A great victory for all of us! You can thank Marie-Claire Paulet, president of A.D.O.T. at France-Adot@wanadoo.fr

Heads of Tails? It’s all the same…

A bullfight, that bloody rite condemned by a majority of Europeans, consists in torturing six bulls for a quarter of an hour each. First of all, the picador sticks a lance up to fourteen centimeters long into the bull’s back and twists it inside the wound so as to sever the neck ligament. Then he opens the wound by driving in six 7cm-long harpoons: the banderillas. Then the animal is put to death, at best with a single sword-stroke, but this is extremely rare. The unhappy record up to now is thirty four attempts!
An equal-to-equal fight?
But the worst is before… Some bullfighters demand that the bulls be mutilated before they come into the arena. They are willing to take fewer and fewer risks while earning up to $ 80,000 for a single performance! This horrible practice - afeitado - consists in sawing off with no pain killer five or ten centimeters of the horn then to stuff the innervated matter back towards the root of that very horn and then sharpening the tip again. Mutilating the bull’s horns amounts to depriving him of all his spatial perception and to diminish the animal psychologically speaking.

In addition, the number of bullfights is increasing significantly, so more and more bulls have to be produced. The spaces in which the animals, fed on pellets are raised, are getting smaller and smaller. Their muscular qualities are so deficient that they fall to their knees as soon as they come into the arena. As for the animals’ health, the Alliance has obtained autopsy stating reports that in 1995 and 1996 a damning proportion of bulls had been hit by tuberculosis, leading to the meat’s being seized. In these circumstances, can anyone dare talk about an equal-to-equal fight?

Baby bullfighters

Moreover, the law allows anyone, in a zone where local tradition has not been interrupted, to torture and put to death a calf under horrible conditions. Children practise: the sword goes in, comes out, several of them gang together to try to finish off the animal, and the death throes end in a blood bath.Bullfighting schools even exist, there from the age of nine, these same children are taught the "art" of torturing and putting to death. These schools are subsidised by the French authorities using the money of all tax payers. Nonetheless, the Alliance has, for the first time, managed to ban too a young professional Spanish bullfighter from performing for the whole season of 1996. Moreover on 4 June 1997, at our request, the law court fined the organiser of bullfights in Nîmes, owing to the performance in 1995 of another baby star torero: El Juli. Encouragement of bullfighting creeps in everywhere: into schools and even hospitals. In Marseilles, some had no hesitation in giving a show for children with cancer, doubtless no blood was shed, but in that way, children are led insidiously to get a taste for cruelty.