One Voice/VimeoFootage has been shared of the shocking moment a young bull collapses from exhaustion during a training session at a bullfighting school in France.
The video was taken by animal rights group One Voice, and shows the young animal collapse in front of the students, before they drag it back up onto its feet by the horns.
According to the animal rights group, who are calling for the closure of French bullfighting schools, children as young as six are taking part in the cruel activities. The group believe participation in such events can affect a child’s emotional development.
You can watch the footage here:
The video shows the young bull chasing a red sheet held by a man, before it collapses into the ground with exhaustion. The animal can clearly not support itself, though the trainers drag it back up by the horns, while another man holds it by the tail.
According to One Voice, children as young as six are taught bullfighting in schools such as this. At the end of the year, the students earn a ‘reward’ whereby they kill a young bull in the arena, in front of spectators.
The activist group believe the schools teach children ‘torturing a living animal’ is ‘acceptable and expected’.
They added:
Psychologists around the world are worried about the impact it can have on brain development and empathy of children, to receive these conflicting signals from adults around them: we must not hurt others and we must applaud those who kill the bulls in the arena … It is an education of sadism, and this has deleterious repercussions on their psyche.
One Voice/VimeoThere are around five schools in France which teach bullfighting, such as the infamous school in Nimes, which Once Voice also investigated a few years ago.
The sport is more common in Spain, and last year the United Nations called on the country to ban children from attending bullfights. They argued the exposure to such violence would have ‘damaging effects’.
It was recommended by members of the Committee for the Rights of the Child anyone wanting to attend a bullfight should be at least 18 years old, MailOnline reports.
One Voice/VimeoIn Spain, it is believed there are around 55 bullfighting schools.
One Voice have started a petition to stop these bullfighting schools in France and to put a ban on the practice altogether.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.