And if it was in the courts that the anti-corridas carried the blow? Two months after Jean-Pierre Rico (New Centre), the mayor of Pérols (Hérault), announced that a novillada, a fight between young bulls and apprentice bullfighters, will be held on July 15 in its arenas, the associations that campaign for animal protection have not lowered their guard. They demonstrated, towed, and their petition, on Myopinions, exceeded 53,000 signatories, becoming one of the most initialed on the platform.
But it is now before the courts that the offensive continues. The anti-corrida Alliance, supported in its approach by the inhabitants of Pérols, has lodged a request, before the administrative court of Montpellier, aiming to bring down the deliberation taken by the municipal council on April 11, which endorsed the organization of the bullfighting show this summer. A second legal action, before the Montpellier court this time, will also be launched in the coming days by the association.
“Mr. Rico may have surprises,” says Claire Starozinski, president of the Anti-Corrida Alliance. We are going to prove that the bullfight, the Péroliens do not want it, and therefore that the tradition is no longer alive. “Because it is on this point that the pros and anti-corridas are likely to be torn apart, before the courts. In France, the law severely punishes “the act of exercising serious abuse or committing an act of cruelty towards an animal”. Except, says the Penal Code, for “bullfights, when an uninterrupted local tradition can be invoked.” In Pérols, no bull has been put to death in the arenas for at least twenty years. Case closed ? It is not so simple.
Other associations including the SPA in support
Justice has, several times, ruled on the legality of bullfights, because the bullfighting tradition can also be seen in a broader way, to a region for example, and not in the strict sense of the municipality. Moreover, case law stipulates that even if there has not been bullfighting for a long time in this village, the simple fact that this culture exists, and that it is shared by a large number of inhabitants is sufficient to justify an “interrupted local tradition”. This is the meaning of several court decisions since the 2000s. But at the Anti-Corrida Alliance, we have gathered many testimonies from residents, aimed at demonstrating that this tradition is massively rejected. “We are not talking about three or four testimonies, resumes Claire Starozinski. But several hundred. »
And, whatever happens, the activist will go “to the end”, she confides. “And if ever we do not succeed in having this bullfight banned before it takes place, as soon as the first drop of blood is shed, in the arenas of Pérols, we will go to the criminal court. The Anti-Corrida Alliance is not alone in bringing this battle to the legal arena. The Radically Anti-Corrida Committee (Crac) Europe has also seized the administrative court to make its voice heard. Jurisprudence, “it is not engraved in stone, points out Didier Bonnet, the president of the association. It changes, a case law. The SPA, and other associations which campaign for the protection of animals in France, are also working on the possibility of lodging a request before the judge.
The mayor has “agreed to revive this tradition”
But these associations do not make Jean-Pierre Rico, the mayor of Pérols, blush. “That’s a skewer, there! he laughs. “Are we going to win? So, I don’t want the environmentalists to sue me yet, but you shouldn’t sell the bear’s skin before you’ve killed it, confides the elected official, to 20 minutes. We are preparing our defense. I believe that Pérols is located in a geographical area where this culture [de la corrida] exist. And it is a municipality in which the bullfighting traditions, whatever they are, are very marked. Last year we erected a 6.50 meter high bull statue. In Pérols, there are bulls grazing in the fields. »
The bullfight, in this village of Hérault, it was “put to sleep for twenty years, by my predecessor, who judged that there was no economy for this type of event”, recognizes Jean- Peter Rico. “But there are arenas in Pérols that are 63 years old and have never stopped working. A 101-year-old bullfighting club that has never stopped working. And the members of the bullfighting club regularly go to see Spanish bullfighting demonstrations in Béziers, Nîmes, Arles, Alès, Pamplona, Seville, etc. I was offered to revive this tradition, I accepted. »
A opposition elected group has, moreover, decided to seize the prefect of Hérault, so that he cancels the vote of the municipal council of Pérols of last April 11, which they consider insincere. Between the pros and the anti-corridas, the mano à mano promises to be tough.