Soon to ban young children from fighting bulls?

The text, carried by centrist senator Samantha Cazebonne, proposes a ban “bullfighting and cockfighting in the presence of children under the age of 16″ in order to “protection from exposure to violence”. There is little chance that it will be accepted but the bullfighting community has already attacked it “freedom” and to the “tradition”.

“We must give every parent and child the opportunity to choose”disgusted Christine Banuls, a member of the La Embestida bullfighting association in Bouillargues.

“The goal of bullfighting is to kill. If we don’t pass the values ​​of bullfighting on to kids anymore, they won’t go to the bull anymore and it will stop.”estimated to be fifty years old. Since 2012, La Embestida has organized one of the last events of the bullfighting season in the Bouillargues range in mid-October with young student bullfighters.

This year, three Spanish novilleros (uncertified bullfighters), wearing bright clothes, fought a bull in the water and killed six young bulls from French breeding farms.

In the almost full centers, around ten children, including children, attended the novillada to the sound of the fanfare. The latter, if they were with them, did not pay the 15 euro entry fee. Like Maxime’s son, an 8-year-old boy who “love” the run

“I was afraid that killing the bull would affect him, but in the end, no, it’s no more surprising than that. “says the man who is 36 years old, who brings his son “to please”.

But if the bill passes, “We won’t go again, that’s all”said Maxime, one of the few who would not be offended by the project.

Ludivine Boyer defends a “tradition”. Coming to the fields with a group of friends and a 4-year-old girl one of them, she thinks it is “important” that they may attend, but without “force”. “Yes, it’s hard, but a cat running over is hard too”sweeping away the 36-year-old woman. Taking the kids to a bullfight “is part of parental, educational choice. We are in the land of the free”. For Marc Jamet, a professor at the Nîmes Bullfighting Center, who trains twelve students between the ages of 6 and 22, the ban on children older than “ferry”. “Transmission would be cut”he explains. “These are children who went to see a bull with their grandfather or their parents who were bitten by the local mosquito”says former bullfighter Richard Milian. It is to be a spy “dream” de Elias, 13 years old, who saw his first bullfight at the age of 3 and is now training in Nîmes. “When I was little, I said to myself: I might be the man in the middle of the field. »

France, where a bull occurs only in the south, in Bayonne, Mont-de-Marsan, Nîmes, Arles or Béziers, is one of the eight countries in the world where this scene is still staged. Colombia has planned a ban in 2027. Most countries where bullfighting is legal allow the presence of minors, who must sometimes be accompanied by adults. There are some prohibitions, such as in the Spanish region of Galicia for children under the age of 12 and in some Venezuelan areas.