MEXICO: Hundreds demonstrate in Mexico City calling for an end to bullfighting in Mexico

Record ID: 303477

  • Title: MEXICO: Hundreds demonstrate in Mexico City calling for an end to bullfighting in Mexico
  • Date: 6th February 2007
  • Summary: (BN02) MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (JANUARY 5, 2007)(REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING WOMAN RAISING A BANNER GIRLS MARCHING AND HOLDING A BANNER PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATOR WITH MASK ON DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE PLAZA MEXICO POLICEMEN TALKING WITH DEMONSTRATOR (SOUNDBITE)(Spanish) BENJAMÍN GARCÍA AYALA, PROTEST ORGANIZER SAYING: "The level of humanity we have as animal lovers is not because we feel pity against these defenceless beings. There is pity for or against these defenceless animals in these places. To the contrary, the fans and the bullfighter bring out the most primitive instincts in humans and that is why we are against this type of event." DEMONSTRATOR JUMPING AND SHOUTING SLOGANS BULLFIGHTING FAN, ERNESTO RAMOS, WAITING TO ENTER TO BULLRING (SOUNDBITE)(SPANISH) ERNESTO RAMOS, BULLFIGHTING FAN SAYING: "I think that this kind of movement is worthwhile but in the Congress where the authorities can decide the situation. Here, the only thing they can provoke is that someone gets offended and that fight breaks out between the people. That's all it does." DEMONSTRATOR HOLDING BULL PIÑATA GIRL SHOUTING POLICEMEN LINED UP BETWEEN DEMONSTRATORS AND BULLFIGHTING FANS GIRLS SHOUTING PIÑATAS OF BULLS ON THE FLOOR
  • Embargoed: 21st February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8CFJG7CNVL26SX94NO8NL1J3I
  • Story Text: At Mexico City's Plaza Mexico, the world's largest bullring, animal rights activists organized a demonstration against bullfighting on Monday (February 5, 2007).
    Hundreds marched a few blocks from the Plaza demanding that bullfighting be banished because they say the bullfights are nothing more than a form of highly stylized torture.
    The protest began on the bullring's sixty-first anniversary as thousands of bullfighting fans were entering it to watch one of the year's most talked about bullfights.
    "The level of humanity we have as animal lovers is not because we feel pity against these defenseless beings. There is pity for or against these defenseless animals in these places," said the protest organizer Benjamin Garcia Ayala. "To the contrary, the fans and the bullfighter bring out the most primitive instincts in humans and that is why we are against this type of event."
    Activists in jeans and white t-shirts handed out pamphlets and shouted anti-bullfighting slogans.
    Bullfighting enthusiasts filed into the bullring to watch the fight but didn't pay much attention to the demonstrators.
    Organizers expressed their goal of ending Mexico's fondness for bullfighting and asked that others do their part by not going to bullfights and to stop watching them on TV.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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