End Bullfighting in France

Target: Jean-Marc Ayrault, Prime Minister of France

Goal: Extend the reach of France’s ban on the cruel sport of bullfighting, to include the entire country.

Bullfighting is still allowed in the south of France due to “tradition.” In the majority of France, bullfighting is considered a violent crime against animals, with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison. However, in the south bullfighting is a protected practice that goes hand-in-hand with holidays such as Easter, or the European Pentecost festival Whitsun.

Bulls forced into a fighting ring are teased and maimed before finally being killed in front of spectators. In attempts to give the human opponents the upper hand, bulls have their horns cut to keep them off-balance, petroleum jelly rubbed in their eyes to obscure their vision, and are sometimes beaten pre-fight.

Matadors begin by agitating and confusing bulls with swift movements of a cape, before assistants enter with bullhooks and lances. The creatures are weakened by blows to their back, neck, and shoulders, which impairs their ability to raise their heads in defense. In order to maximize blood loss, assistants twist and gouge the lances after a hit.

When the bull has been sufficiently weakened and is no longer able to defend himself, the matador returns to slit the bull’s throat. If he fails to kill the bull and only mutilates it further, an executioner is called into the ring to stab the bull behind the neck and sever its spinal cord. On some occasions, the executioner’s stab leaves the bull paralyzed but still alive as it is dragged out of the ring by its horns.

Fighting bulls endure hours of fear, pain, and torture before being killed for sport. Though it may be a tradition, it is in human nature to shed past traditions that become barbaric in light of advancements in knowledge and ethics. Your signature will demand that France outlaw bullfighting entirely in all regions of the country.


Dear Jean-Marc Ayrault, Prime Minister of France,

Currently, bullfighting is banned in France – except in the south, where the bloodsport is allowed to continue due to tradition, despite the fact that 70% of French citizens want an all-out ban. Bullfight organizers in the south of the country see immunity from the two-year prison term usually associated with bullfighting.

Bulls in a bullfight are first teased and agitated by a matador, before assistants enter and mutilate the bull’s neck and shoulders with lances and hooks. The bull is beaten, maimed, and terrorized in order to weaken it to the point where it can no longer defend itself. After the bull is exhausted, its throat is slit and it is dragged out of the ring unceremoniously.

Though bullfighting may be tradition, it is part of our duty as human beings to evolve our traditions in keeping with the progress of knowledge and ethics. Similar to Roman gladiator battles, bullfighting causes incredible fear and pain along with unnecessary death, all for the sake of entertainment. I ask that the French bullfighting ban be extended to all regions of the country, including the south.


[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Argyriou via Wikimedia Commons

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  1. Aren’t there enough forms of entertainment? How can people enjoy watching an animal be tortured and killed? It’s just sickness.

  2. olimpia marina says:

    It is barbaric and stupid..needs to be stopped immediately.

  3. Myrna Burdick says:

    People continue to commit all kind of attrocites against animals
    in the name of tradition. Any tradition that causes pain and
    suffering is not a mark of civilization but of base depravity.

  4. Robert GERVAIS says:

    Bullfighting is an awful bloodsport recently enough introduced in France,in the middle of the nineteenth century at the beginning of the second empire, to please the emperor’s wife, an andalusian countess.
    Strangely enough, the republican power restored since 1870 never tried to get rid of these inhuman shows though reprobation growing up more and more among French people,the opponents now are the largest majority ever.
    Robert GERVAIS

  5. The French government is so dysfunctional and constipated that they wouldn’t even dare considering banning a traditional thing even for their own sake. We should boycott their products until they understand that most countries except them are concerned with Animal Rights since decades ago.



    • You are correct. They all seem to ignore the brutal inhumane conditions factory farm animals are forced to endure, not to mention the horrific treatment they receive on the journey to the slaughter house and then being dismembered while alive.

      • thank you for your thoughts Linda. it is ironic and hypocritical to condemn one kind of torture, exploitation and murder such as bull fighting while actively participating in another type such as consuming the flesh, milk or eggs of brutalized farmed animals. although the vast majority (90%+) of animal agriculture is done in factory farmed conditions, the so called smaller family farms are also just as guilty and many of the undercover video’s documenting horrific abuse were taken at these small “humane” farms. no matter how well we may perceive them to have been treated, they all end up being brutally murdered at a very young age in order to meet trivial palette desires. here is a great quote and a short 15 minute video which i think summarizes these truths very well:



        • I am here now and saw the poster for the feria in july. I am so disappointed, so saddened to realize that this country of “high culture” would cling to this cruel spectacle. The factory farms, slaughterhouses differ in that it is not glorified or made public. Which is worse? All should be done away with. Tradition? Brings in tourist dollars? So does child prostitution in Thailand.

          • I am in Ceret now but doubt I will return. To glorify a cruel bloodsport is barbaric–and in a country that glorifies its high culture. This is the Catalan part of France, where traditjons are still practised but in the Catalan of Spain, bullfighting and bullrunning, have been banned!

  7. Kathleen Entwistle says:

    Bullfighting is just wrong no matter how you look at it. It’s not a Sport. It isn’t pretty. It’s bloody, ugly and needs to end. What good does it do? The bull is going to die in pain, and the Matador, well, he gets gored, thrown, attacked, or if he is lucky, walks away, but stuff happens. I root for the bull, but it’s a pointless activity that does no one any good especially the bull. Do they eat the bull afterward? Even if they did do you want all that bad Karma to go with your food? This is looking at a Prism filled with Problems.

  8. trudy Redfern says:

    I cannot believe this is still going on. I have been campaigning against it since I was a child and for that same reason I have boycotted Spain and refuse to spend my holiday or any money there. It is a barbaric sport and even Munnings, the famous artist was disgusted 100 years ago when he saw it.

  9. Wendy Waltenberg says:

    How can anyone take pleasure in seeing such a magnificent animal be slowly tortured to death ?

    To me it shows where they are on the scale of human evolution – the bottom of the bottom.

    Please end this brutal form of sick entertainment.

  10. Despina M. Andrelus says:


  11. Corinne Müller says:

    Sorry to say Foie Gras is not only popular in France, some restaurants on Switzerland serve is as well. It is a shame that some people are ready to breach any moral and ethical obligations for money.
    And there are some Russians, who work here, they are the main cosumers of foie gras (as well as fur coats) just for luxury! They usually turn a deaf ear, when we start talking about protection of animals. What really matter for them – are fun and luxury.

  12. ….Its horrible, an understatement! How people can get pleasure watching a bull fight and seeing these poor animals scared, in agony and covered in blood, is beyond me….The world around us is full of torture, animals in labs, factory farming, fur farming where animals are skinned alive for fashion and vanity(which must also end!)….We have war and torture too, often completely unecessary, in countries worldwide..why then do people want to watch something as barbaric as bull fighting for ENTERTAINMENT? Do we not all want to escape from cruelty and bloodshed in leisure time? Dog fighting and cock fighting are two more egs of this kind of entertainment, which needs to end ASAP…Lets get away from the dark ages, and this terrible sadistic treatment of our fellow creatures……..

  13. Cynthia dsouza says:

    Stop this

  14. S. L. Trout says:

    Anyone who participates in any type of bloodsport, whether it be bullfighting, cockfighting or dogfighting, can never be considered “normal”. There is an obvious and disgusting disconnect. As long as people who attend these blood spectacles, participate in them, and support and condone them, there will be violence and killing in our world. Don’t be stupid enough to imagine there’s this magic toggle switch in our brains that allows us to switch back and forth as the situation requires. You are either normal or sick. And I will state unequivocally that condoning any type of sadistic exploitation and deliberate cruelty to animals is a sign of a very, very, very disturbed and damaged humanoid.

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