Stockport tells its French twin: don't be cruel to bulls

BULLFIGHTING is a spectacle that arouses the deepest of passions, so when councillors in Stockport start telling their opposite numbers in France that they really should consider the feelings of the poor bulls, then trouble must be expected.

After 27 years of being twinned with the Mediterranean town of Beziers, Stockport councillors have decided they must have a policy on bullfighting. They are seeking ways of making their feelings known without upsetting Gallic sensibilities.

Fat chance - the French have always preferred passion to pleasantries and last night they hit back in a way guaranteed to hurt - they brought up cricket.

Stockport is in Greater Manchester, not very far from Old Trafford, home of Lancashire county cricket club.

"It would not occur to me to ban cricket in England on the basis that it is a stupid game and you can hurt yourself with the bat," said Henri Pages, bullfighting correspondent of the Midi Libre newspaper. "No one forced the people of Stockport to twin themselves with a bullfighting town. There's plenty of dormant Anglophobia around here and it wouldn't take much for it to flare up again."

As one of the principal hosts for the spectacle in southern France, Beziers would consider further criticism by Stockport a hostile act, according to Mr Pages. He accuses Stockport residents of being a soft target for animal rights campaigners because they lack the cultural and historical insights necessary to appreciate the fights.

"In our sanitised society, bullfighting is the last place where people are confronted with death," he said. "We don't have the same sensibility as the people in Stockport; one can't imagine a corrida (bullfight to the death) taking place in pouring rain in Stockport."

Even those in Beziers who do not follow bullfighting are unhappy about being told what is best for them. "The people of Stockport need to appreciate the fact that bullfighting is part of traditional Mediterranean culture, and that is particularly true for Beziers," said a spokes-man at Beziers town hall.

"They are entitled to their own opinion but they need to understand our position."

Several Stockport councillors have joined with the World Society for the Protection of Animals and a small band of French anti-bullfighting protesters to "re-educate" Beziers' citizenry.

Beziers holds seven corridas every year, including a summer festival, which results in the deaths of 30 to 40 animals.

Throughout the region it is estimated that more than 1,000 bulls are slaughtered every year by being attacked with spears, barbed spikes and knives. This year France's most successful matador went on trial for cruelty to animals after being charged with helping to organise a private bullfighting party.

But in Beziers the spectacle is promoted as a tourist attraction. This year's events were attended by heavyweight politicians, including the French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, who comes from the town.

"A lot of people here weren't aware that this barbaric sport was going on in Beziers," said Stockport Tory councillor Ken Holt. "But we are now asking them to put pressure on the French through writing letters to influential people in Beziers expressing their disgust over it."