France's animal rights movement has succeeded this week in planting a couple of sharp spears in the flanks of the once seemingly untouchable French bullfighting industry.

Fierce public controversy has finally broken out on an issue which has traditionally attracted only marginal interest in France.

A television advertisement calling for a ban on bullfighting has been declared unacceptable - because it shows violent scenes at bullfights.

The decision by France's advertising watchdog has drawn attention to the bizarre - and critics say hypocritical - legal status in France of "la corrida", the Spanish style of bullfighting to the death (of the bull). Bullfighting is banned in France but legally tolerated in those areas which can claim an unbroken local "tradition". In practice, French courts have allowed bullfighting to spread to towns in the south where no such tradition exists.

If the practice of stabbing and slaughtering bulls in public is too violent for family viewing on prime-time television, critics ask, why are children allowed to attend bullfights in France?

On one side of the ring are several celebrities, including the Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, the animal rights activists and retired actress Brigitte Bardot, the Franco-American ice-skater Surya Bonaly and Renaud, a lugubrious, ageing "protest" singer and France's answer to Bob Dylan.

On the other side of the ring are bullfighting fans, including the prime minister and several ministers, and the substantial bullfighting economic interests of the deep south of France.

--
full story:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2871500.ece