BAN ON BULLFIGHTS NECESSARY
The
parliament of Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting
- the first region of mainland Spain to do so
-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10784611
Radio
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www.bullfightingfreeeurope.org
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STOP BARBARIC BETS - STOP THE BLOODY BULLRING BETS!
email received: May 15, 2008
Hola /
Bonjour/ Dear Friends,
We would be very grateful if you could help with the
following important action alerts. Also, if you would like
to have some of our new Paddy Power campaign postcards,
please let us know how many and we will send
them to you. Thank you very much.
Tot ziens/Au revoir/Adeus/Adiós/Auf Wiedersehen/Bye
Philip
Kiernan
Irish Council Against Blood Sports
www.banbloodsports.com
_______________________________________
Paddy
Power urged to "Stop Barbaric Bets"
_______________________________________
The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has launched a new
campaign postcard aimed at convincing Paddy Power to "Stop
Barbaric Bets".
Visitors to the betting company's Spanish website are
currently being invited to bet on the number of ears hacked
off the heads of bulls that have been tortured in
bullrings. Please contact us now to receive
postcards for yourself and your friends to send in to the
company's head office.
On the "Toros" page of the site, heartless punters are
given the opportunity to guess the "Nº total de orejas
cortadas en la corrida"
("Total number of ears cut in the bullfight")
In a letter of appeal to Paddy Power, ICABS stated: "We
find it absolutely grotesque and in the poorest of taste
the Paddy Power company's acceptance of such bets. As
people are placing bets on the Paddy Power website,
tortured bulls are stumbling around the bullrings with
blood spurting from their backs and spraying from their
noses and mouths. How can your company justify making money
from this disgusting animal abuse?"
Bullfighting is one of the world's worst blood sports and
is cruel from beginning to end. Each bullfight involves the
slow torture to death of six or more bulls. Horseback
riders firstly weaken the bull by stabbing its body with
sharp lances. To force it to drop its head, hooked spears
are then driven into its neck muscles.
The cruelty culminates with a stabbing through the heart
with a sword.
Ears are cut from the bulls as grisly trophies for the
matadors. The animals will have suffered enormously in the
bullring and, if they are still conscious when the ear is
cut off, their agony will be even greater.
The Paddy Power company has been made fully aware of the
violent horrors of bullfighting. A video sent to their head
office shows a bleeding and injured bull - still conscious
- lying paralysed on the ground as a
bullfighter uses a dagger to carve off one of its ears.
ACTION ALERT
Please register your disgust at Paddy Power's barbaric
bets. Order some "Stop Barbaric Bets" campaign postcards
for yourself and your friends to send in to Paddy Power's
head office in Dublin. If you run an animal
welfare group, please distribute postcards to your
supporters and ask them to urgently send them.
To order cards, please email your name and address to info
[AT] banbloodsports.com
or write to
ICABS, PO Box 88, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. We would be
grateful if you could include a 55c stamp with your
order (for every 15 cards requested) to cover postage
costs.
ACTION ALERT
Please urgently contact the CEO of Paddy Power and demand
an end to its bullfighting bets. Ask as many of your
friends as possible to respond to this action alert and
post it on your website and social networking
pages.
Patrick Kennedy
Chief Executive
Paddy Power Plc
Airton House, Airton Road
Tallaght, Dublin 24
Email: ppower@paddypower.com; info@paddypowerplc.com
Tel: 00353 (0)1 404 5900. Fax: 00353 (0)1 404 5901.
Sample Letter
(Please compose your own personal letter if possible. If
you do not have time to do this, please send the short
sample letter below. Be assertive, but polite, in all
correspondence. Thank you.)
Dear Mr Kennedy,
I am writing to express my absolute disgust that Paddy
Power is accepting bets on the number of ears carved off
the heads of bulls at Spanish bullfighting events.
Removed after the tortured bulls collapse in agony, the
ears are kept by the matadors as grisly trophies. Sometimes
the animals are still alive when the ears are hacked off
and this can be seen in video footage at
www.youtube.com/icabs
As bets are being placed on the Paddy Power website, bulls
are stumbling around bullrings with blood spurting from
their backs and spraying from their noses and mouths. How
can your company justify making money from this disgusting
animal abuse?
Paddy Power - Stop the bloody bullring bets NOW!
Yours sincerely,
Name/Location
Campaign Video: Paddy Power Plc - Stop the bloody bullring
bets
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5we4eBEdLgQ
Video: Bullfighting Cruelty in Spain
www.dailymotion.com/video/x3nykl_bullfighting-cruelty_animals
_______________________________________
Bullfight
exhibition sponsor revealed: Luis de Grandes Pascual, MEP
_______________________________________
Luis de
Grandes Pascual, MEP
The Irish Council Against Blood
Sports has learned that Spanish MEP, Luis de Grandes
Pascual (Partido Popular) is the individual who sponsored
next month's scheduled "Between Man and Bull" bullfighting
exhibition.
Correspondence received this week from the European
Parliament outlines that the exhibition will include
photos, videos and pictures.
Responding to an ICABS complaint, a Parliament spokesperson
stated:
"According to the relevant rules, outside organisations can
apply to use EP facilities under certain conditions. Any
application must be sponsored in writing by an MEP and
approved by the responsible member of the College of
Quaestors after consideration of a reasoned opinion from
the Secretary General. Subject to capacity constraints,
each MEP can sponsor one event in each legislature."
"In the case in question, the exhibition is sponsored by Mr
Luis de Grandes Pascual MEP and has been approved under the
provisions of the current rules," he added.
Please join us in lodging a complaint with Luis de Grandes
Pascual MEP
Email: luis.degrandespascual@europarl.europa.eu
_______________________________________
Google
thanked for removing bullfight adverts
_______________________________________
ICABS has thanked Google for removing bullfighting adverts
from a page which previews a book about anti-bullfight
campaigner, Vicki Moore. In our appeal to the company, we
told of how brave Vicki was violently
gored by a bull while documenting animal cruelty and sadly
died five years later.
"We are sure that it was not Google's intention to be
insensitive or disrespectful but the fact remains that the
presence of these links are hurtful not only to Vicki's
surviving husband, Tony, but also to the many people in
Ireland, the UK and across Europe who remember the enormous
contribution Vicki made to the campaign against
bullfighting," we stated in our correspondence last month.
In an email reply to ICABS, a Google spokesperson
acknowledged "the contradiction of showing the ads on a
book search site against animal violence".
ICABS was delighted to subsequently learn, through Tony
Moore and his partner Matilda Mench (both of whom launched
the Google campaign), that the sponsored links had been
removed from the Life on the Line page.
As Google continues to accept adverts from
bullfighting-related companies, the campaign continues.
Please see below for more details on how you can help
persuade Google to stop advertising this abhorrent
activity.
ACTION ALERT
Thank Google for removing the bullfighting sponsored links
from the Life on the Line page. The links continue to
appear on other Google pages, however, so please urge the
company to show compassion and stop accepting adverts from
those involved in this barbaric blood sport.
Sample Letter
(Please compose your own personal letter if possible. If
you do not have time to do this, please send the short
sample letter below. Be assertive, but polite, in all
correspondence. Thank you.)
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Ph.D.
CEO, Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Fax: 001 650 253 0001
Email Google Ads at: adwords-support@google.com
(If emailing, please try and also post or fax a letter to
Dr Schmidt as well)
Dear Mr Schmidt,
I am writing to thank Google for removing bullfighting
sponsored links from the Google Book Search page for Life
on the Line, a book about brave anti-bullfighting
campaigner, Vicki Moore.
Sadly, similar links continue to appear on other Google
pages. I ask you to please stop accepting Sponsored Link
adverts from companies involved with bullfighting, one of
the world's worst forms of animal abuse. Your
decision to disassociate Google from this appalling blood
sport would be widely welcomed by millions around the
world.
Thank you. I look forward to your positive reply.
Yours sincerely,
[Name/Location]
Video: Vicki Moore / Life on the Line
Tribute to Vicki Moore and her dedication to helping
animals
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgOsYkE72E
Read a preview of "Life on the Line - The heroic story of
Vicki Moore"
by Matilda Mench at:
books.google.com
Purchase the book at bluecoatpress.co.uk
or from your local book shop (ISBN-1904438571)
_______________________________________
MEP
contacts Parliament President about bullfight exhibition
_______________________________________
Irish MEP, Kathy Sinnott, has contacted the President of
the European Parliament about an exhibition which
bullfighters are planning to hold at EU Headquarters next
month. The blood sports brigade are trying to
convince parliamentarians that slowly torturing a bull to
death is a "noble" activity that should be preserved.
In a letter to all of Ireland's MEPs, ICABS stated: "We are
shocked and horrified to learn today that there is to be a
bullfighting exhibition entitled 'Between Man and Bull',
the purpose of which is to try to persuade legislators that
bullfighting is a 'noble' activity. This is due to commence
on June 4th, and is aimed at familiarising Parliament
members with the 'beauty' and 'proud liveliness' of this
'European cultural heritage'."
"If you abhor what can only be described as the world's
worst blood sport, please strongly object to the mounting
of this grotesque exhibition, masquerading as art and
tradition," we added.
Appealing to the President of the European Parliament to
scrap the exhibition, we highlighted this week how
opposition to bullfighting across Europe is at an all-time
high and continually growing.
"A majority of EU citizens want bullfighting banned," we
emphasised. "We hope that you can reverse the decision to
allow the bullfighting industry into Parliament to speak
favourably about this indefensible
blood sport."
ACTION ALERT
Urge the European Parliament to close its doors to
bullfighters spreading misinformation about one of Europe's
worst instances of animal cruelty
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter.
Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below.
Be assertive, but polite, in all correspondence. Thank
you.)
Hans-Gert Pöttering
President of the European Parliament
Rue Wiertz 60
PHS 11B11
B-1047 Brüssel, Belgium
Email: hans-gert.poettering@europarl.europa.eu
Dear Mr Pöttering,
I wish to register my strong objection to the "Between Man
and Bull" exhibition which is due to take place at the
European Parliament early next month. Considering the
extreme animal cruelty involved in bullfighting and the
fact that millions in Spain, France, Portugal and all
across Europe want this barbarity banned, I believe that
bullfighters should not be invited into Parliament
buildings.
These heartless animal abusers describe their sport as a
noble tradition that should be preserved but you will
surely agree that there is no place in a modern Europe for
the slow torture to death of animals for entertainment. It
is now time for bullfighting to be banned and I urge you to
cancel this exhibition and to work towards ridding the EU
of this, and all, blood sports.
Thank you very much. I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
[Name/Location]
ACTION ALERT
Ask your MEPs to lodge a complaint against the "Between Man
and Bull" exhibition and to call for it to be cancelled.
Also urge them to support future moves in the EU to finally
bring bullfighting to an end. Contact
details for your country's MEPs can be found at
www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public.do
