http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd4FyPOuCEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQ_NBV5Z4g
International Anti-Bullfighting Summit established a Worldwide
Network for the Abolition of
Bullfighting
Worldwide
network will bring together anti-bullfighting organisations from
across the world to take forward common strategies and tactics to
abolish bullfighting wherever they
exist
For Immediate Release
23rd May 2007
Press
Contact
Name
of Press Contact, Position in Organisation,
Contact
The International Anti-Bullfighting Summit, which took place on
18th and 19th May in Lisbon, Portugal, gathering 24 European and
Latin American anti-bullfighting organisations, was an historic
moment for the anti-bullfighting movement in the world. Many of the
organisations which are in the frontline of the social and
political struggle to abolish bullfights have established common
grounds of work to accomplish this goal, namely by creating
the
Worldwide Network for the Abolition of
Bullfighting.
In the Summit, the participant organisations have assessed the
present state of bullfighting in the world and the success of the
movement which, both in bullfighting and in non-bullfighting
countries, takes continuous action to end this brutal business.
There is an abundance of evidence of this success, for example: the
two Ecuadorian organisations present in this intercontinental
meeting told everyone at the Summit that Ecuador recently declared
Baños its first anti-bullfighting city, which is also the first
anti-bullfighting city on the American continent.
Among many other decisions and strategies that have been discussed
and established, the Summit has not only decided to establish
the
Worldwide Network for the Abolition of
Bullfighting,
but it has also decided:
•
to
organise an annual International Anti-Bullfighting Summit, to take
place each year in an European or American country where bullfights
exist, which will allow the movement to be even more unified and
dynamic;
•
to
send a letter to the members of the National Assembly of Venezuela
who are proposing a new and very progressist animal protection Bill
which includes a ban on bullfights, expressing worldwide support to
this initiative;
•
to
support the initiative that
ANIMAL is
about to launch aimed to abolish bullfights in
Portugal.
The International Anti-Bullfighting Summit has been organised by
the Portuguese animal protection group
ANIMAL,
in collaboration with the
League Against Cruel Sports from the United Kingdom
and
the
Anti-Bullfighting Committee The Netherlands & Belgium (Comité
Anti Stierenvechten, CAS),
gathering 22 other anti-bullfighting and animal protection
organisations from across Europe and Latin America.
On May 17th, all the organisations which have participated in the
Summit have joined
ANIMAL in
an important and symbolic international anti-bullfighting
demonstration, which was participated by approximately 700 people,
held outside the Campo Pequeno Bullring, Lisbon´s bullfighting
arena.
Miguel Moutinho, President of
ANIMAL,
said “The protest was very successful and it has, for the first
time in Portugal, driven the bullfighting industry to send a
desperate call to all their agents and supporters to get them to
attend the bullfight that occurred in the bullring on that night,
so that they would have all the seats taken, as a way to show their
“strength”. And still, the bullring was far from full of
spectators, which is yet another symptom of how weak the industry
in Portugal is and of how certain it is that it is about to face
its end”.
For more informations, please contact Miguel Moutinho, through (00
351) 96 235 81 83 or
miguel.moutinho@animal.org.pt.
==
END ==
Note
about ANIMAL
ANIMAL is a non-governmental organisation working to educate the
public about animals, their characteristics, needs and rights,
investigating and exposing animal cruelty and campaigning to
abolish the exploitation and abuse of animals in Portugal. ANIMAL
also carries lobbying efforts to forward animal protection and
takes legal action to enforce animal protection legislation, also
involving the media in highlighting the suffering and killing of
animals and how important and urgent it is to end it.
Associação
ANIMAL | Animal.org.pt
|
Tel/Fax: 00351 282 491 216