Bullfighting in France

That bullfighting exists in Spain is of course well known. What is also beginning to become well known is that there is a political divide appearing within that country, particularly in the northeast, in the state of Catalonia. There are many Catalans who say that bullfighting is cruel and is not a Catalan tradition and therefore should be banned. Animal rights activists from all parts of the planet can only agree. Something like 30,000 bulls a year in Spain are subjected to this "sport".

What is less well known is that bullfighting exists in France as well. Primarily in the south, there are on average 100 "corridas" (bullfights) a year with about 700 bulls killed. In the southeast of France, the region known as Roussillon, is where the main aficion for this activity resides (though it is also in the French Basque country). Roussillon was historically once a part of Catalonia, and the French tourist office proudly trumpets this fact, though hardly anyone in Roussillon these days can actually speak Catalan, France being the one other country in Europe (together with the English) that ruthlessly eliminated virtually all of its regional languages over the last 300 years.

So while the Catalans south of the Pyrenees are horrified by bullfighting and want to see it banned, the "Catalans" to the north are promoting it as "part of their culture". It was introduced to the Roussillon by the Empress Eugenia de Montijo, wife of Napoleon the 3rd, in 1853 and has taken root there.

In an article today in the Barcelona daily newspaper, La Vanguardia, the response to the idea of eliminating bullfighting from the Roussillon was sent in a letter from a group of French mayors and parliamentarians to the Catalan Parliament in Barcelona.

"In many localities (in the Roussillon) bullfighting, together with rugby, represents one of the most important signs of Catalanism." Incredible.

http://www.lavanguardia.es/politica/noticias/20100613/53945318281/la-catalunya-nord-mantiene-los-toros-como-sena-de-identidad-francia-montijo-eugenia-bayona-tgv-nicol.html

Incidentally, if you still harbour the illusion that Europe is a civilized place (despite Scandinavians still slaughtering dolphins and whales legally), the penal code in France prohibits the maltreatment of animals except where it can be demonstrated that it is an "uninterrupted local tradition". In other words if the torture of animals has been an ongoing situation for some time (since 1853 in the case of bullfighting in southern France), then it's OK. In the north of France, cockfighting, where roosters have razor blades attached to their legs and attack each other in events which are staged for betting purposes, is still legal.