Mr ROUSTAN, WE THE PEOPLE WANT BULLFIGHTING ABOLISHED IN ALES!

Mr ROUSTAN, WE THE PEOPLE WANT BULLFIGHTING ABOLISHED IN ALES!

• To Mr Max Roustan, Mayor of Ales, President of the Metropolitan area.

• To Deputy Mayors : Marcel GERENTE, Marie-Christine PEYRIC, François GILLES, Jacques FOULQUIER, Catherine LARGUIER, Martine MAGNE, Bernard ARNAUD, Jean-Claude ROUILLON, Marlène SIKORSKI, Claude RICCI, Mireille GAL.

• To City councelors :Marcel VEAU, Pierrette PAEZ, Thérèse BAZALGETTE, Bernard SALEIX, Aimé CAVAILLE, Gérard PALMIER, Danielle GAUTHIER, Chantal SOUMADIEU, Alain PIALAT, Michèle VEYRET, Pierre HERAIL, Antonia CARILLO, Christian CHAMBON, Soraya HAOUES, Danielle ALBERT-MOYE, Ysabelle CASTOR, Valérie MEUNIER, Jean-Régis MASSON, Pierre MARTIN, Jean-Michel SUAU, Fabien GABILLON, Jean-Louis ATTARD, Elisabeth SAPEDE, Jean-Louis FIOLE, Benjamin MATHEAUD, Salima AISSAOUI, Robert PONGE.

Copy of this petition will be addressed to Manuel Valls, Interior Minister.

We, French citizens, in signing this petition demand the abolition of bull-fighting in the town of Ales.

With this civic petition we wish to support the 55% of the town’s population you govern, your fellow citizens, who declare to be against bull-fighting taking place in the town of Ales.⁽¹⁾

Mayor Roustan, since August 2010, you have cancelled free entry for children to the arenas. In January 2013, you cancelled public funding for these torture shows, or at least direct public funding ⁽²⁾ . You also have put an end to bullfighting on horseback ⁽³⁾ .
We applaud these measures.

Yet, as citizen we cannot, as you will certainly understand, be contented with partial measures when it comes to maintaining barbaric practices, practices of violence and death, torture and slaughter of an innocent animal for the cruel pleasure of a small number of people who precisely are in minority.

Mayor Roustan, you declared that “One can’t defend animals, if one does not respect Man”.

Well:

• Have the courage and honesty to follow your own opinions: respect the massively expressed wishes of the French people and the citizens you represent,

• Have the courage to push to its end the trend of measures you started, by following the admirable and admired example given by Mr Elie Brun, Parliamentary and Mayor of Fréjus, who decided to put an end to bull-fighting in 2011,

• Have the courage and compassion to end a practice in which innocent sentient beings are reduced to be the toy, victim of a few humans in need of some fun,

• Respect the people you represent and honour your role as Mayor: restore the beauty of your town by preventing its grounds to be soiled by blood and suffering,

SOURCES:

1. Figure from the CSA Institute Poll ordered by the CRAC Europe, July 2012- Prior to that an IPSOS poll in July 2010 stated that in the Gard region, 71% of the people feel no attachment to bull-fighting, including 45% who declare to feel no attachment whatsoever to it.
2. Article in the « Midi Mibre » newspaper entiltled “Ales: no public funds for bullfighting in 2013” (in French).
3. http://www.alescevennes.fr/resources/medias/services.mairie-agglomeration/deliberations.ville.d.ales/deliberations.2013/conseil-municipal-du-28-janvier-2013.pdf