By any definition you care to use, bullfighting is animal abuse.  If it is still legal – and, of course, in many places it still is – then what does that say about us? 

The nation of France provides us with an interesting case study on this question.  The French record on animal welfare legislation is better than most, having banned wild animal circuses, mink farms, and captive dolphin shows.  The French people are certainly not known for a tolerance of violent cruelty towards animals.  Nevertheless, the French government has made the explicit decision that bullfighting will continue to be permitted on France’s soil.  Not because it isn’t violent.  Not because the bull doesn’t suffer.  Everyone knows these things to be true, and no one disputes them.  So why the exemption for this particular ‘sport’? 

Last year, the courts ruled against a French animal welfare organization that brought suit to try to put a stop to this barbaric practice.  The ruling stated that bullfighting is “too popular” to be banned.  In other words, tradition and historic cultural practices are to be given precedence, even when running in contravention of France’s own animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws.  This is an astounding legal result in a western democracy.  So far, the French government has chosen not to intervene with new legislation.

Polling finds that approximately three-quarters of French citizens believe that bullfighting events should be banned.  Certainly, the practice doesn’t enjoy the same popularity it does in other countries.  Of the 250,000 bulls killed by this savagery every year, perhaps 1,000 are killed in French bullfights.  In fact, it is banned in most of the country, and is limited to certain regions in the south.  So overall, France is far from being the worst offender.  But consider the principle involved here.  How offensive is it to the majority of France’s residents to be told that torture for entertainment will continue in their country because enough of their fellow citizens still like to do it?

Note as well that it isn’t just bullfighting that continues to operate legally despite its abhorrence to most citizens.  A law passed way back in 1951 banned cruelty to animals, but it exempted certain practices where towns can demonstrate that they have had “a long and uninterrupted tradition of the activities”.   This means that, unbelievably, cockfighting is still an accepted practice in the eyes of the law in some regions of northern France.  The absurdity of this in the year 2022 cannot be overstated.

Tradition is not a justification for any kind of immoral action.  Lots of things were acceptable practices ‘traditionally’.  Until they weren’t any more. 

Why are we, an organization dedicated to the interests of cetaceans, bringing this up?  Whales and dolphins are qualitatively different from cattle, of course, and that makes the crime of torturing and killing them that much worse.  But the real point here is the principle that we simply don’t have the right to inflict pain and suffering on an animal – not to entertain ourselves, or for any other reason.  Most French citizens agree.  A court in Alberta, Canada, also recently agreed. 

This latter involved a case brought by Animal Justice on behalf of a husky puppy who’d been severely beaten, and concerned how those convicted of such offenses should be sentenced.  The court ruled in favour of AJ’s position that animals are “feeling beings” who suffer when subjected to abuse, and that this makes it a crime of violence and not merely a property offense.  Therefore, it’s not just a matter of prescribing punishment, it’s “important to consider banning an offender from caring for animals, to protect animals from experiencing further abuse.”  Interestingly, the court also noted that animals “are especially vulnerable to abuse in commercial settings, where people are using them to generate profit”.

We expect that this ruling will set an important precedent in future cruelty cases in Canada, and that animals will be better protected against future harm when courts consider sentencing.  This is tremendously important to getting us to the world in which we’d all like to live.  If we don’t have compassion in the face of any animal’s suffering, then where do we go from there?
 
The time has come to take a stand for or against the idea that tradition can serve as a sufficient justification for practices most of us find abhorrent.  Or, for that matter, for anything else.  I maintain that, by itself, tradition isn’t an argument that can cut it in support of anything at all.

Applied to the question of whether the time has come to ban bullfighting completely, in France or anywhere, we can begin to see the importance of a legal precedent such as this one in Alberta.  Whether it is achieved through common law or through legislation.  Consider the following.

It’s estimated that there are no more than about 10,000 people who attend bullfights in France.  The country’s population is more than 60 million.  One in 6,000 makes it extremely difficult to argue that bullfighting is “too popular”.  OK, so we can easily make the case that it isn’t a meaningful part of France’s heritage or that most people would like to preserve it.  But’s that’s the easy part.  What if those numbers were much higher, as they are in Spain or Mexico?  Then it becomes very difficult to put a stop to it unless the principle is somehow established in the law that animal cruelty cases are not simply property cases, but crimes of violence against sentient beings.  Beings whose interests need to be considered.

Without this, you’d be stopped by an argument as simple as this piece of nonsense from Manuel Valls, France’s former Prime Minister, and a man animal rights advocates have long accused of using his power and position to push back against any move to ban bullfighting.  “It’s something I love, it’s part of my family’s tradition.  It’s a culture we have to preserve.”  

Sorry, no, Monsieur Valls.  Being a tradition does not automatically make it acceptable.  Bullfighting is barbaric, and in most parts of the country (including Paris), it would rightly earn you a prison sentence.  It’s time to extend France’s ban on animal cruelty to include this and other so-called sports that involve the torture of other sentient beings.  Tradition be damned. 

For The Orca’s Voice, 

Dani, Canadian Cetacean Alliance