Monday 21 November 2022 | 26

One Voice at the centre of the bullfights at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes

One Voice at the centre of the bullfights at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes

Mis à jour le 08 June 2023

During the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes, which took place from 15 to 18 September 2022, One Voice investigators filmed part of the bullfighting and the discourse of fans. On site, glamorisation of the cruelty and torture of animals did not spare the children, of which there were many in the audience.

Hr blog

The images and remarks collected by One Voice investigators at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes are clear. Among fans, preservation of bullfighting is a true ‘fight’ for which killing enthusiasts are willing to deny the evident animal mistreatment perpetrated in arenas. “The bull is not stupidly sacrificed, it is not mistreated[…] it is respected under its animal identity”, protests Simon Casas, the director of the Nîmes arena. A statement that is violently contradicted by our videos where bulls, their bloody backs stabbed with pikes, weak and distressed, are provoked endlessly by their executioners until they are killed. Here where the director of the Nîmes arena claims that there is respect, and not “violence”, the French National Order of Veterinarians stated in 2016 that “bloody bullfighting shows[…] are in no way compatible with respect for animal welfare”. Here where fans state that bullfighting culture is “one of our freedoms of expression” and teach their young children to applaud when animals are killed, punishable by five years imprisonment and a 75,000 Euro fine under the penal code for serious mistreatment and acts of cruelty leading to the death of an animal. Departments such as Gard, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, or even Bouches-du-Rhône cannot continue to contravene the law to torture animals in the name of tradition.

An abolitionist bill

In agreement with the opposition of the general public to bullfighting, since 87% of French people are favourable to punishing any intentional act of cruelty leading to the death of an animal according to a study sponsored by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and led by Ifop in February 2022,we are continuing our fight to, at the least, ban access to bullfighting for minors and for the closure of bullfighting schools.

We support MEP Aymeric Caron’s bill for the abolition of bullfighting in the entirety of France. After a weekend of rallying several thousand people, a rally is planned in front of the National Assembly on 24 November, the day when the bill will be debated in session.

One of our activists from the Nantes branch, Killian Leroux, has developed an interrogation tool for your MEPs. Do not hesitate to use it before Thursday!

Together we can abolish bullfighting!

                                                 

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Marion Henriet
Hr blog

In the subject

A second day against bullfighting: around thirty towns are rallying Together for abolition! On 19 and 20 November, around one hundred associations will be on the ground to support the abolition of bullfighting, supported by the bill voted on at the National Assembly on 24 November

Comments 26

I accept that publication of my comments is subject to the code of conduct.

Shogun74 | Thursday 24 November 2022

Premier échec à l' Assemblée !... Il ne faut rien lâcher, nous sommes en 2022, Impensable !....

Isabelle | Thursday 24 November 2022

Merci On voice !
Corrida Basta !!!!

Marguerite | Thursday 24 November 2022

Spectacle sadique, incitant les mineurs à accepter l’insupportable.
Vive les taureaux, à bas les aficionados qui mettent en poésie souffrance et torture . Les jeux du Cirque c’est fini depuis des centaines d’années .

trochu | Thursday 24 November 2022

Profondément avec vous et en pensées avec vous ce jeudi, afin de protester et exiger l'interdiction totale et définitive de la corrida en France, alors que de très nombreux autres pays ont déjà franchi le pas. Ceux qui parlent "de culture, de traditions à respecter" ne sont qu'immondes, car comment peut on admettre et voir une telle cruauté, barbarie et torture envers ces pauvres taureaux voués à une mort atroce et horrible ? Ceux qui prétendent "que les toréadors aiment leurs animaux" ne sont que grotesques et inacceptables, car aimer les animaux ce n'est pas les faire souffrir et les tuer. Ce combat doit continuer jusqu'à l'abolition définitive de la corrida qui n'est en rien "un spectacle" mais indigne d'êtres civilisés ou soi-disant l'être.