New judicial episode in the war waged by the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) at bullfighting.
The battlefield was this time in Nîmes (Gard), a city famous for its arenas where a large number of events take place every year - except for coronavirus ... -.
Among these, the bullfights of the Pentecost ferias (May-June) and the Harvests (September) occupy a prominent place.
Read also: Between the SPA and aficionados of hunting and bullfighting, war is declared
This Monday, a month after the trial held on June 30, the Nîmes Criminal Court ruled in favor of the horse torera Léa Vicens, the organizer of bullfights Simon Casas and his company as well as the Nîmes town hall, represented by its mayor Jean-Paul Fournier. The SPA had filed against them a direct summons before the criminal court for "serious abuse or acts of cruelty to animals".
“The court pronounced a general acquittal, as expected, and ordered the SPA to pay 3000 euros for the costs of the proceedings. We are satisfied, it fits into the order of things, ”
comments Me Jean-Pierre Bigonnet, Simon Casa's lawyer, to Le
Figaro. “The SPA, which has been involved in all the fights against bullfighting since its creation, is perfectly familiar with the law and case law. It is appalling and reprehensible to use a criminal court as a forum when we know the volume of cases handled by the courts, the lack of resources they suffer, the delays they have to manage ... "
The SPA was based on article 521-1 of the Penal Code, which provides for penalties of up to two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros.
But the Penal Code specifies that
“the provisions of this article are not applicable to bull races when an uninterrupted local tradition can be invoked”
.
This motivated the rejection of the association's request.
"Nîmes is the French capital of bullfighting, and the whole world knows it"
, supports Me Bigonnet.
The "local tradition" takes over
In recent years, the SPA has adopted a legal strategy in order to achieve a clearly defined and assumed objective: the prohibition of bullfighting.
She therefore does not hesitate to increase the number of actions before the courts.
So far, however, all these actions have failed.
The association was rejected in Bayonne on November 19, 2020 and in Béziers on May 5, 2021;
the Dax court, before which a hearing took place on June 2, 2021, has not yet ruled.
Read also: El Rafi, bullfighting for the horizon
In its decision, consulted by AFP, the court of Béziers admittedly recognized the
"significant suffering"
inflicted on the bulls during the bullfights -
"which is however debate even among veterinarians"
, slips Me Bigonnet. "
The bull can only suffer
", whether during the
"blows carried by the picadors"
, the installation of the banderillas and the killing, estimated the judges. But the latter then invoked the aforementioned provision of article 521-1 of the Penal Code.
The magistrates of Bayonne did the same.
"It is clear that, in the arenas of the bayonnaise locality, the regular holding of bull races dates back to a very ancient time and has never been interrupted, except during the world wars, except in this year. 2020 due to the health crisis, ”
wrote the judges in their motivation, reports
Le Monde
.
Faced with these repeated failures, however, the SPA does not intend to lay down its arms.
In support of her fight, she mentions in particular a survey carried out by Ifop for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in May 2018. To the question
"Are you in favor or against the abolition of bullfights with the killing of bulls in France ? "
, 74% of the 1010 people questioned answered
"yes"
.
Read also: The French opposed to the maintenance of bullfights with killings
A bill tabled in January
The legal fight of the association serves above all to bring the subject to the public.
The SPA is well aware that the ground which would allow it to achieve its ends is legislative.
In an interview with
Le Figaro
in June 2019, its president Jacques-Charles Fombonne thus assumed his intention to ask “
the legislator to simply ban bullfighting”
.
To read also: Jacques-Charles Fombonne: "Corrida has only been authorized in France for a little over a century"
A bill to this effect, tabled on January 26, 2021 in the National Assembly, carried by the deputy Éric Pauget (LR) and co-signed by eight LR deputies as well as an LREM deputy, was also referred to the Commission for Constitutional Laws, Legislation and General Administration of the Republic.
"It is not currently on the agenda
,
"
said the press service of the National Assembly in
Figaro
.
Wind up against a text that they qualify as
"amoral"
and evoking the
"fight against animal abuse"
, elected officials are asking for the removal of the exception of
"uninterrupted local tradition"
.
This paragraph of the Penal Code
"now appears as an outdated tolerance of the legislator responding to practices of another time, which still tries to legitimize the mutilation and the abominable suffering of thousands of bulls"
, they underline in the explanatory memorandum. .
No prohibition for minors
Previously, anti-bullfighting had tried to tackle bullfighting from the minority angle.
In October 2020, an amendment aimed at prohibiting bullfighting for minors, tabled by LREM deputy Samantha Cazebonne during the discussion of the proposed law relating to animal welfare, had finally been
"deemed inadmissible under article 45 of the Constitution ”
.
To read also: The call of 41 personalities: "Corrida is an art and no one should be excluded"
In a column published in
Le Figaro
, around forty personalities from the world of culture protested against this amendment.
“Corrida, more than a spectacle, is an art, culminating in the encounter of courage and honor that takes place in the arena. [...] To prohibit an art is unworthy of a modern democracy ”
, wrote the signatories.
“We can discuss bullfighting. We can find it violent or beautiful, or violent and beautiful. No one is required to attend. We ask the government that no one be excluded. ”
In November 2019, the Radically Anti-Corrida Committee (Crac) had for its part faced before the Council of State a rejection of its request to dissolve the bullfighting schools of Arles, Béziers and Nîmes in the name of the interests of the 'child. This request had previously been rejected by the prefects of Bouches-du-Rhône, Hérault and Gard, then by the administrative courts of Marseille, Montpellier and Nîmes and finally by the administrative courts of appeal with territorial jurisdiction.