Animal rights activists protested exterior the world’s largest bullring in Mexico City on Sunday, as bullfighting resumed following an almost two-year hiatus attributable to a courtroom suspension.
Dozens of protesters marched to town’s Plaza de Toros Mexico bullring, decrying the occasion. Chants included: “Torture is not art, it is not culture,” and “Yes to bulls, no to bullfighting.”
“We are completely against the fact bullfights have returned, and that these events continue to be held where only pleasure is sought through the torture of an animal,” Jeronimo Sanchez, director of the NGO Animal Heroes, informed the French AFP information company.
Why is bullfighting controversial?
Mexico has hosted bullfights for the reason that sixteenth century. But in recent times, animal rights activists have intensified their fights towards the apply.
Only a handful of Mexico’s 32 states have up to now banned the apply.
Ranchers, businessmen and bullfighting followers argue {that a} ban would threat tens of hundreds of jobs linked to the exercise, which they declare generates some $400 million (€369 million) yearly.
In May 2022, a neighborhood courtroom ordered an finish to bullfighting actions at Plaza México in response to an injunction introduced by the civil group Justicia Justa.
But the nation’s Supreme Court quickly revoked the suspension in December 2023.
Mexican media reported that the courtroom solely dominated on technical points fairly than the case’s deserves, with activists hoping for a ultimate ban later this yr.
rmt/sri (AFP, AP, Reuters)