Fw: URGENT!! New contact info...'FIRE BULL' FESTIVAL IN SORIA SPAIN

November 11, 2008

--- On Tue, 11/11/08, Rita Fazio <r.e.fazio wrote:

Rita Fazio <r.e.fazio[AnimalsInNeed] URGENT!! New contact info...'FIRE BULL' FESTIVAL IN SORIA SPAINAnimalsInNeed Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 12:29 AM

Cruelty in Spain is rampant and much of it is carried out to celebrate Catholic holidays. The only way this will end, is if the Catholic church publicly condemns the cruelty.

I've added some contact info. and a sample letter to

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, at the end of this alert. I also added contact info. for a couple Catholic churches in Spain, a Catholic foundation for animals and a travel agency in Soria. You can cc the churches in your email to the Pope and write the travel agency, to tell them you won't be visiting a country that treats animals so cruelly. Please be respectful.

Be sure to send a letter to Spanish officials through PETA's web site: http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/toro_de_fuego?rk=W7_l-X5qACggW

Please act quickly, this "festival" is on the weekend of November 15.

Please circulate. Thanks!

- melgraj2

HELP STOP THE SADISTIC 'FIRE BULL' FESTIVAL IN SORIA //

ANTI-BULLFIGHT GROUP IN SPAIN!!! CAAB SPECIAL BULLETIN

I am begging each of you to sign this petition. The photo of the bull in agony while burning will sear your heart and enrage you that any so-called humans would do this.

IF WE DO NOT SPEAK OUT FOR THESE CREATURES WHO ARE VICTIMS OF TWISTED AND ABOMINABLE CRUELTY.....WHO WILL?

Spain has a long and dishonorable history of animal cruelty and this is just another example. The actions below are NOT those of one demented person....they are the actions of a demented and cruel tradition that must be stopped.

I urge all to boycott this loathsome culture until changes are made.

Examples OF FESTIVALS that are held:

Setting a bull's head on fire

Goat paraded in streets, before being thrown from the church tower in Manganeses de la Polvorosa.

The crushed donkeys of the Pero Palo fiestas, Villanueva de la Vera (Blackie).

The pigeons and squirrels in clay pots stoned in Robledo de Chavela.

The live chickens hung from a line hacked to pieces by blindfolded young girls with blunted swords in Tordesillas.

The chickens buried to their necks and decapitated by blindfolded villagers in Aduna.

The drowned bulls, the bulls castrated alive for fun, and the darted bulls of Coria.

The use of stray dogs for "hunting"...if it moves...it is shot...and often the dogs are hung to get rid of them.

http://www.faace.co.uk/huntdogs.htm

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig & hl=en & rlz= & q=spain+animal+cruelty & btnG=Google+Search

Zelda [zpenzel]

November 08, 2008 8:19 PMURGENT!!!! Help Stop the Sadistic 'Fire Bull' Festival in Soria (Spain)On the weekend of 15 November, a sadistic festival called "Toro Júbilo" will take place in Soria, Spain. During this festival, balls of pitch are attached to a bull's horns and set on fire.The bull is then released out into the streets and can do nothing but run around in pain, often smashing into walls in an attempt to douse the fire. The agony he must suffer isunimaginable. These fiery balls can burn for hours, and they burn the bull's horns, body and eyes and cause tremendous stress- all while spectators cheer and run around the victim.Please join me in sending

an e-mail to Spanish officials urging them to put a stop to this vile so-called "festival" now.http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/toro_de_fuego?rk=W7_l-X5qACggW

==============================================================

Patricia OConnor: boubaheart

Sunday, November 09, 2008 3:22 PM

CAAB Special Bulletin

Víctima de absurdas y crueles tradiciones, sufre una agonía inimagibale.

Picador: Con brutalidad y violencia a la vez que con cobardía, destroza el lomo del animal.

Sádico: Aquí vemos al "valiente" aplicando la puntilla al toro moribundo e indefenso.

Caballo destrozado. Los caballos son otras víctimas de éste cruel espectáculo, que solo puede gustar a una mente enferma y decadente.

Éstas imágenes volverán a TVE si no actuamos. Supondrán un avance para la totura y el maltrato, una forma de captar nuevos adeptos del sadismo, y una manera de embolsar ENORMES cantidades de dinero fácil que se DESTINARÄ A REFLOTAR EL NEGOCIO DE LA TORTURA TAURINA.

Su última mirada, nos acusa de nuestra indiferencia.

Biscay Group Against Bullfights and Animal AbuseAs you know, many of us here in Spain are working to abolish the cruel "tradition" of bullfights.Bullfighting is quite simply a business that benefits businessmen in the sector, livestock breeders, bullfighters (above all, in romance magazines) and makes the 60,000 bulls killed each year their victims. When it looked as if public TV would keep away from this cruel spectacle, not having broadcasted bullfights for the last two years, they seem to be on their way back. Hardly surprising since news of the decline of bullfights and how bullrings never fill up have appeared in the press in recent months.. We suspect that this attempt to get bullfights back on public TV is a way of making up for the drop in direct profits. Each broadcast would cost 60,000 euros. Obviously a way to keep a dying business alive. We are not going to let this happen. We will make sure all our politicians

hear us. We will make them listen to the vast majority of citizens who believe that this must end. 80% of Spaniards show no interest whatsoever in bullfights. On the foreign scene, they continue to try to sell an image of a country that supports and enjoys bullfights although this is far from true. Most of us can't stand torture of innocent animals. We hope you will support our initiative so that our politicians will also know what people all over the world think.We are aware of the international objections to this barbaric spectacle and that many of you outside Spain's borders have organized to protest against bullfights. The time has come for us to work together. These are times of change and this obsolete cruel torture must also change. Act now and make them listen. Our kindest regardsBiscay Group Against Bullfights and Animal Abuse

METODOLOGÍA DE TRABAJO: From the 10th of this month, every Monday and Wednesday, we will send you a bulletin with 98 addresses for congressmen, senators, a complaints form for RTVE, etc. and a model letter to send. We will divide it into two blocks of 49 so that Hotmail users will not have any problems forwarding them (as they can send a maximum of 50 each go). So all you have to do is copy the 49 addresses on an e-mail, copy the model letter and send it. This also applies to the second round of addresses that will appear in the same bulletin. Gmail and some other servers allow massive mail so those of you can may send the model letter to 98 addresses all at once. On Wednesday, we will send you another bulletin with 98 addresses in order that you can repeat the process. This is quick task, just copy and stick on the model letter, add your personal data (name and identity card number and city). We request that you please send the

bulletins with the model letter and addresses to all of your contacts so that politicians and government are flooded with our mail to show them that we strongly protest against this torture being televised once again, our complete rejection of bullfights and thus, any form of animal abuse. Just one more thing. In the blocks of 49 addresses, we would appreciate your sending us a hidden copy to (colectivoantitaurino) so that we can keep up with the campaign to ensure it is being properly forwarded or, if not, to make any necessary changes to make it as effective as possible. Thank you for you help. You will be receiving the first block of addresses to congressmen, senators (including Ms. Riolobos who asked the head of RTVE why bullfights were not being televised on TVE) and to TVE itself. Thank you again

for your help and cooperation. Working together, we can keep bullfights from being shown on TV.

www.colectivoantitaurino.org

Contact the Pope

The Pope’s regular mailing address is:

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

00120 Via del Pellegrino

Citta del Vaticano

The Pope’s email address (for English correspondence) is: benedictxvi

Please contact Fr. Ron with any questions or requests. Parish office: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church La Parroquia de habla inglesa Calle Drácena, 23 28016 Madrid Spain Parish phone: (34) 91 350 3449

Email: olm <olm

Catholic Mass Barcelona

Email: info

TOURIST OFFICES

Patronato Provincial de Turismo.

Avd. de la Victoria 5. 42003, Soria.

Tfno. 975 220 511.

Fax. 975 231 635.

e-mail: turismo (dipsoria.com)

St Francis Foundation for Animals is located in Malta, but their mission is, "To positively influence Maltese and international society into being more compassionate towards the animal creation and more aware of the inter-relatedness of all creatures under God."

"To campaign extensively, either as an individual society or in partnership with other like societies for animal rights legislation and humane treatment of animals, and to end all forms of animal exploitation."

They can help influence the Church in Spain and the Pope to help stop the cruelty.

You can read the entire mission statement by going to: http://www.saintfrancisfoundation.com/

and clicking on Mission

Email: stfrancisfoundation (gmail.com)

Sample letter for His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Written by Ruth Eisenberg

Either write your own letter or add your own feelings to the sample. If that isn't possible you may use the sample.

Your Holiness Pope Benedict XVI:

You rightly state that animals are God's creatures and abuse of them contradicts the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible:

"...we can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God's creatures . . . Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible."

The abuse you so aptly describe is related to mass production industries which treat animals as products to be consumed, not living, feeling beings inbued with a soul. It is admirable that you have chosen to condemn these practices.

What then does one make of abuse of animals committed in the name of religion. It has come to our attention that there is a religious festival in Soria Spain, on the weekend of November 15, the fire bull festival, that sets the head of a bull on fire and sends him charging through the town. Unfortunately this is just one such religious festival which occurs in countries such as Spain and Mexico.

The Catholic Church is an influential and powerful organization in Spain, and as its revered head, your opinion would go a long way towards ending cruel practises carried out in the name of the Catholic religion.

If you truly believe that animals are imbued with a soul and that their lives deserve respect, then you cannot allow their torture to go on in the name of the Catholic Church.

Please make it clear to those who organize and carry out these acts of violence, to our fellow living beings, that these festivals are not in keeping with the basic principles of Christianity and must be discontinued.

There are other religions which have long grasped the concept of Ahimsa, total compassion for the lives of all beings. One such religion is the Jain religion of India. Its adherents have followed a life style of non-violence for many millenia and continue to do so to this day. As you do, they believe that because all living beings have a soul their lives must be respected. They have understood on the deepest level that to harm or kill another living being is to harm one's own soul.

It is our greatest hope that you will communicate to the perpetrators of the above mentioned violence, that Christianity too values the lives of all beings and that cruelty to animals in the name of religious festivals is intolerable.

Respectfully,

Your name and country