Fwd: VICTORY: Following a formal complaint filed by ANIMAL with the Child Protection Services, French-Mexican 11 year old bullfighter Michelito Lagravére was banned from performing at last night´s bullf

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Following a formal complaint filed by ANIMAL with the Child

Protection Services, French-Mexican 11 year old bullfighter Michelito Lagravére

was banned from performing at last night´s bullfight at Lisbon´s Campo Pequeno

Bullring, in Portugal

 

The

“bezerrada†(a bullfight with a calf of 1 to 2 years old, weighing

around 250kgs) was scheduled to take place last night, at Lisbon´s Campo

Pequeno Bullring, in Portugal, at 11:45 p.m. The so-called “starâ€

of the bullfight was the French-Mexican 11 year old bullfighter Michelito

Lagravére, whose participation in a series of bullfights in Portugal over this

summer was making headlines and sadly exciting the Portuguese bullfighting

lovers.

 

However,

Portugal´s Child Protective Services stepped in, following a formal complaint

filed by Portuguese animal protection organisation ANIMAL, which has

denounced the situation to the Attorney General´s office, to the Authority for

the Labour Conditions and to the Child Protective Services of Lisbon. In this

complaint, ANIMAL highlighted the dangers for the child that this

bullfight with a calve would pose and stressed out how this would infringe the

existent labour legislation protecting children from child labour, and

particularly pr

otecting children who participate in cultural activities and

spectacles from any possible dangers this can pose to them. ANIMAL also

pointed out that, under the article 32nd of the UN Convention on the

Rights of Children, of which Portugal is a signatory state, it is not lawful

for a child to participate in a bullfight.

 

Yesterday,

at 17:00, about 7 hours before the bullfight, the Lisbon Center Child

Protective Service notified the bullfighting promoters that the participation

of Michelito Lagravére in this bullfight was not authorised.

 

As other

bullfights with this child-bullfighter are scheduled to take place in Portugal

over the next weeks and months during the Summer, ANIMAL is now

multiplying its efforts to prevent this from happening at any bullring of the

country.

 

Last

year, in France, the Attorney General´s office of two towns in the South of

France, Fontvielle and Arles, also prohibited the young bullfighter of

participating in bullfights in these towns, following complaints filed by the

French anti-bullfighting organization Alliance Anti-Corrida.

 

In

Portugal, bullfighting is experiencing the strongest opposition ever seen, with

ANIMAL securing consecutive victories and gaining terrain in campaigning

to abolish bullfighting in this Southern European country.

 

Last year,

a Lisbon Court banned RTP, the state-owned TV station, from broadcasting a

bullfight before 10:30 p.m. and without displaying a permanent sign indicating

it a

s a violent spectacle, following an injunction brought by ANIMAL.

The court has also deemed bullfighting as a cruel and violent spectacle

unsuitable for children and susceptible of negatively affecting the moral and

psychological development of children and teenagers. Also last year, big

international companies, such as Ben & Jerry´s, KODAK, Melka and Carlsberg,

ordered their Portuguese branches to step away from any commercial association

that they had with bullfighting.

 

This

year, following an intensive anti-bullfighting campaigning work carried by ANIMAL,

the Mayor of the Northern capital of Viana do Castelo declared this city

Portugal´s first anti-bullfighting city. Subsequently, the mayors of Braga,

Cascais and Sintra have also took measures to not authorize bullfights in their

towns. Through an intensive national and international campaign, ANIMAL

also managed to stop the Regional Parliament of the Azores Islands from

legalizing bullfights with Spanish-type “picadorsâ€, which would add

up to the extreme violence towards the bulls that Portuguese-type bullfights

already involve.

 

For

Miguel Moutinho, President of ANIMAL, “the participation of

children in bullfights does not only constitute a violation of animal rights

– it also constitutes a shocking violation of children´s rights. ANIMAL

will do everything possible to have bullfighting banned once and for all and

to, in the process of accomplishing that ethical goal, try to prevent children

from being desensitized towards the suffering of animals and from being taught

to, and praised for, torturing animals, as Michelito sadly doesâ€.

 

ANIMAL can only carry on campaigning to abolish bullfighting and

to forward animal protection in Portugal with your support – Please make as generous a donation as you can TODAY to help ANIMAL:

 

·

Use PayPal to make a safe and easy internet payment– please go to http://www.PayPal.com/ and make a donation to info

 

·

Make a bank transfer to the following account:

0AANIMAL – Associação Nortenha de

Intervenção no Mundo AnimaL

Montepio Geral (Caixa Económica)

IBAN: PT50 0036 0093 9910 0034 4746 9

BIC/SWIFT: MPIOPTPL

 

·

Make a regular donation by cheque or money order and posting it to us at: ANIMAL, Apartado 24140,

1251-997 Lisboa, Portugal

 

 

Animal.org.pt ::

No More Crimes Without Punishment

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