ENOUGH PRO-BULLFIGHTING VETERINARIANS IN THE GENERAL COUNCIL!

The General Council of the Spanish Association of Veterinarians, presided by Mr. Juan José Badiola Díez, has just granted its 17th Bullfighting Trophy after "evaluating the zootechnical characteristics and braveness of the bulls fought during Madrid's San Isidro festival of this season (2004)". An honour that the animal has not been able to enjoy as the "lucky" one, Fogonero -number 7, weighing 508 kg, black fur, and belonging to the Hijos de Celestino Cuadri breeders - was killed by matador Dávila Miura on the 31st of March's bullfight.



The Association for the Defence of Animal Rights, ADDA, has started a campaign throughout Spain so that the vast majority of veterinarians who reject cruelty and fight for animal welfare, are made aware and don't allow that those seated in their Council, who continue with an incomprehensible obscurantism, prevent them from being informed about the social advances of their occupation and of cities so important as Barcelona, who's town hall, has absolutely democratically declared itself anti-bullfighting with the support and approval of numerous veterinary clinics.

A veterinarian's job is to care for the health of the animals, to ensure they have a better quality of life and, for those who work in slaughterhouses, that the laws about stunning, transport and breeding and fattening conditions are applied. Many of them give an exemplary image of dedication and efforts.

This is why we deeply regret that Dr. Badiola, a person with an indisputable prestige, agrees to participate in events so out of place that contravene the feeling and criteria of most of its affiliates. By granting trophies typical from pro-bullfighting clubs, its members are called into question, as the headquarters of a General Council must reflect and advance its profession.

With this campaign, ADDA is calling the attention of those that, without wanting to, have been involved in the decision of a Council that has not represented them.


Flora Aguilera

Alicante (Valencia, Spain).- The Antibullfighting Party against Animal Mistreatment, PACMA, has launched a campaign in order to get Alicante declared an antibullfighting city. With this objective, they have addressed themselves in a letter to the city's mayor, Luís Díaz Alperi, a recognised pro-bullfighting person, in which they remind him that "Spain holds almost 450 bullfighting rings. The total of subsidies to maintain these shows are estimated at about 120,000 Euros and then afterwards, there is no money for social funds". A very different reality to which some prefer to stay blind and deaf, and so those who do see it have to do something to change it.

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BULLFIGHTS DURING CHILDREN'S TIMETABLE ON NATIONAL TV

Madrid (Spain).- The parliamentary group Esquerra Verda- Izquierda Unida- Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (Catalonia's left hand environmentalist) have presented a motion to the Chamber of Deputies in which they urge the directors of RTVE (national public television) to broadcast programmes that contain bullfighting images during the night. This proposal is suggested because this public channel broadcast a bullfight during children's timetable, at six in the afternoon. One of the bulls broke its spine as the result of a bad fall and the spectators celebrated the animal's tragedy with an incomprehensible joy and binge. This political party has also prepared a series of parliamentary questions about the issue. These are the first steps towards prohibiting the broadcast of bullfighting events.

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UNCOVERED BULLFIGHTING

The Association for the defence of Animal Rights (ADDA) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) have jointly edited “Cronica de una tortura” (chronicle of torture) which explains what really happens during a bullfight. The word “torture” is defined as: serious physic and physiological pain caused to someone with diverse methods and tools- and the tools that are used during the bullfights – puya (lance ended in metallic tip), banderilla (harpoon), spade, killing sword, and dagger. It is an illustrative leaflet based on and contrasted with reality without exaggerations. It is a follow up of the different stages of an regulated torture, in one of the pages there are pictures of bulls calmly eating from the hands of their keepers that provide their feed.

Tierras del Ebro, (Tarragona, Spain) – The local government of Catalonia should clarify during the forthcoming months whether the celebrations with tied-up-bulls and bulls-on-fire are legal or not in the Catalan region of Ebro (El Triangle, 19/07/2004).

The debate concentrates on whether the Catalan Law of Animal Protection, approved by the Parliament on June 2003, legalises or not this kind of shows. At the end of June, a report of the Ombudsman recommended not to grant any permission for “street bulls” as law prohibits any public show in which physical or physiological suffering is caused to the animal.

The report quotes another study ordered by Ramón Luque, General Director of Natural Environment, in which it was clearly stated that bull mistreatment is without any doubt included in these cases and asks for its prohibition. But the local government of Catalonia's Delegate in the Ebro region, Mr. Lluis Salvador, is in favour of the bullfighting people, announcing that these feasts could be authorized as the law permits them when there is no death involved.

There is a great incongruity as the word “running of the bulls” that this law permit, literally means that bulls run through the streets. But this is very different from pulling bulls with a rope, and burning balls of fire on their horns which, asides from turning them crazy of horror, burn their horns and eyes.

The Member of Parliament for the French political party Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP, for the Maritime Alps, Muriel Marland-Militello, has presented the Parliament with a law proposal for the prohibition of bullfights in France. In it, very solid arguments are used to ask for the ban of the 3rd paragraph in article 521-1 of the Penal Code, which exempts from responsibilities those who organise bullfights "where there is a local uninterrupted tradition". The animal welfare movement had been waiting 53 years for this moment. It is an historical event, as in case it is accepted, bullfights will again be illegal in all French territory. Marland Militello had the support of 37 Members of Parliament before presenting this proposition, on which all animal welfare associations have actively participated.

DEMOCRACY?

Last May 22nd, 2004 for the first time in the fight against bullfighting in France, 22 of their militants, European citizens, chained themselves in the middle of the Alès bullring, before the beginning of a bullfight with 6 bulls. Asides from the active Comité Radicalement Anti-Corrida (CRAC) several French, Belgian and American associations also participated. The action was repeated the following Sunday, May 27, at the bullring of Tarascon. The peaceful presence of the pro-animal people denounced the financing of the city's bullfighting school by the Caisse d’Allocations Familiales de Bouches du Rhône, which grants social subsidies. On this occasion, a teenager helper of the bullfighters, walked through the demonstrators holding spades and banderillas. In a symbolical way, the president of CRAC, Jean Pierre Garrigues, held the spade case and without having time of saying a word, he received a punch one after the other until the anti-disturbance brigade took control. The aggressors were released and the pro-animal people remained retained by the police. Democracy?