

Bullfight in Céret: new images of an unbelievable outburst of violence
Horses that collapse from the violence of the impact after being charged at. Dressed up men torturing disoriented bulls before slowly putting them to death by piercing them from all sides. Grotesquely posed bullfighters moving around in an absurd display of domination. This was the sad spectacle of a bullfight held in Céret (Pyrénées-Orientales) on July 13, of which we are publishing unprecedented images. Animal suffering must no longer be pushed into the background in favour of the dangerous and unbearable aestheticization of violence. Let’s ban bullfighting!
Tortured bulls, unspeakable brutality and ridiculous torturers
The tone is set from the very first seconds: the bulls, in panic, charge at the horses, striking them with terrifying power. The riders then thrust sharp spears into their necks. Blood spurts and flows, cries resound and the crowd cheers. Then come the banderillas, which remain planted in the flesh as the bulls desperately try to remove them.
Then comes the slow descent into death. Weakened by blood loss and repeated wounds, the animal goes around in circles, lost. His torturer, trained from an early age, as we have documented, approaches with absurd solemnity. Exulting to be standing up to him, he shouts, then thrusts his sword in. The bull resists, then trembles and slowly collapses, spitting out litres of blood before the eyes of an audience hypnotized by this barbarism from another time.
The scene culminates in agony: the final blow, a knife in the back of the neck, supposed to put an end to this scene of horror. But there are plenty of misses. The men repeat their movement several times, stabbing awkwardly, offering unbearable images of animals twitching on the ground, exhaling in a never-ending death rattle.

Shield horses, also victims of these cowardly sacrifices
Chanquete, Narbonne, D’Artagnan are among the horses forced to take part in these macabre spectacles that day. Blindfolded, they don’t understand where the sharp blows come from, nor the assaults they suffer. Their riders do not spare them a single charge.
The violence is such that some regurgitate under the force of the blows, while others are suddenly thrown off their feet and fall. The riders immediately get back up in the saddle to continue their timed barbarity. Each killing ends with two more horses, whipped off to evacuate the bodies of the slaughtered bulls.
Bullfighting, a spectacle of torture that should be banned
Investigation after investigation, bullfighting is revealed for what it really is: a ritualized torture masquerading as tradition, authorized as an exemption in a few regions. This shameful exception has no place in a society that calls itself civilized.
A few days after Sébastien Castella’s killing of six bulls in Bayonne, which we and our partners denounced as a macabre celebration of the best executioner, it is more necessary than ever to demand the total and definitive abolition of this practice, as demanded by the overwhelming majority of French people. To join us in this fight, sign our petition!