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New declaration seeking EU ban on bullfighting
02 February 2007 A declaration seeking to underline the EU's commitment to banning bullfighting has been presented to the European Parliament. If signed by a majority of MEPs before April 14th, it could mark the beginning of the end for this horrendous blood sport across Europe. Please join us today in urging MEPs to sign Written Declaration 0002/2007. ACTION ALERT To succeed, this declaration must be signed by a majority (393) of MEPs before 14th April 2007. Please help to ensure that the declaration gets the majority support that reflects Europe's mass opposition to bullfighting. Please urgently contact your country's MEPs (please see contact details and sample letter below). If you are part of an animal welfare group, encourage all your supporters to write to the MEPs, asking them to sign and support Written Declaration 0002/2007 ("Written declaration on the EU-wide ban on bullfighting"). A list of MEPs by country can be found on the European Parliament Website. For Ireland's MEPs, please scroll down for list below.
Sample Letter
Dear MEP, I am entirely opposed to bullfighting and am writing to ask you to please sign Written declaration 0002/2007. Presented by your colleagues Robert Evans, Mojca Drcar Murko, Gitte Seeberg and Carl Schlyter, this important declaration calls for an EU-wide ban on bullfighting. Bullfighting is a horrendously cruel activity which results in the torture to death of tens of thousands of bulls throughout the EU. Such cruelty should no longer be tolerated here in the European Union. Please sign Written Declaration 0002/2007 and help rid Europe of this universally condemned activity. Thank you very much. I look forward to your positive reply. Yours sincerely, (Name/County) MEPs in Ireland
Gay Mitchell, MEP
Eoin Ryan, MEP
Liam Aylward, MEP
Avril Doyle, MEP
Mairead McGuinness, MEP
Marian Harkin, MEP
Seán Ó Neachtain, MEP
Simon Coveney, MEP
Brian Crowley, MEP
Kathy Sinnott, MEP
Jim Allister, MEP
Bairbre De Brun, MEP
Jim Nicholson, MEP
A big thank you to the following MEPs who have already signed the declaration.
Written declaration on the EU-wide ban on bullfighting
15.1.2007
The European Parliament,
A. having regard to Protocol No 33 to the EC Treaty, which refers to animals as 'sentient beings' and states the Union's desire to 'ensure improved protection and respect for the welfare of animals', B. whereas, since bullfighting has never been declared by any EU institution to be a cultural heritage and no Member State has ever applied for any EU funds or support for bullfighting on cultural grounds, it is merely to be seen as a habitual practice that has become a performance business, C. whereas bullfighting is based on stressing, exhausting, injuring and/or killing bulls and results in over 40,000 bull deaths per annum in the EU, D. whereas this practice runs contrary to the bold and ambitious steps laid out in the Commission's Animal Welfare Action Plan for 2006-2010, which place the EU at the forefront of improving global animal welfare, 1. Calls on the Commission to act upon Parliament's response to the Animal Welfare Action Plan, which called for all animals, and not just farm animals and those used in experiments, to be included in EU animal protection measures; 2. Calls on the Commission to take further steps to ensure that EU farm subsidies cannot be given to farmers who breed bulls to be used in bullfighting; 3. Calls on the Commission and Member States to take action to bring bullfighting into line with the EU's broader approach to animal welfare and to work toward an EU-wide ban on bullfighting; 4. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Commission and the Member State governments. ICABS TV: Bullfighting A WSPA video presentation showing the cruelty of bullfighting can be viewed on ICABS TV at www.youtube.com/icabs
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