9 July 2007
_______________________________________________________________________
CULTURE WITHOUT CRUELTY
CRUELTY IS NOT CULTURE
TRADITION MUST NOT ENTAIL TORTURE
5 JULY 2007
LIC. JOSÉ JESÚS CORREA RAMÍREZ
PRESIDENTE MUNICIPAL
Y H. Ayuntamiento
Presidencia Municipal en el Edificio Administrativo
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, GUANAJUATO. 37700 MEXICO
Dear Mr. Mayor Jesus Correa Ramirez and Honorable City Council:
We would like to congratulate you all through this letter on your decision to cancel the “Pamplonada” or “Sanmiguelada” running of the bulls event that has been held for years in your beautiful city.
On behalf of Culture Without Cruelty, an international organization and other groups working toward a culture of decency to living beings and toward a world culture of elevated nonviolent human values and in your special case in the historic city of San Miguel de Allende: we reiterate our support of your decision to change the activity of the “Sanmiguelada” we understand became violent toward the animals, and that the event included human lives affected by gunshots, and a morally dubious source of economic gain for some groups who do not seem concerned about the serious implication to the health and moral values of the young people who participate in this event and their future lives after repeated exposure to extreme alcohol consumption with a violent entertainment such as “running of the bulls.”
We are concerned that the “Sanmiguelada” has caused abuse and violence and the death of numerous animals unjustly treated and which provided “entertainment” to some 50,000 spectators in 2006. We understand that a bull died of exhaustion and injuries, collapsing in front of No. 7 at San Francisco Street when the event was not announced as injurious to the bulls, and that the event had exceeded the time limits.
We are concerned about the unjust torture with a pocket knife cutting the bull’s tail and veins so that it would be jolted to get up to continue the “entertainment” of the crowds. We have this report from the witness and owner of the shop at San Francisco No. 7, Ms. Marcela Andre Lopez.
This kind of events as “Sanmiguelada” cause human loss of life as well as cruelty to the animals, and such events waste resources of the public security system as well as that of the Red Cross: These services are meant for the daily benefit and services to the community, designated as the “Cradle of Independence” in San Miguel de Allende.
We encourage that the entire Mexican nation, not only the State of Guanajuato, establish a decree that this is a definite, final and permanent cancellation of the “Sanmiguelada” and not only for just this one time in 2007.
As your city bids on World Heritage status, changing the venue for the “Sanmiguelada” would only allow for this shameful “tradition” to continue active. We support the termination of the “Sanmiguelada” in San Miguel de Allende, as well as everywhere else: that it not be held at all, anywhere. Please do not allow outdated, barbarian customs to hamper the possibility of being named a World Heritage Site, and definitely cancel this cruel and unnecessary event.
Surveys conclude that Pamplona, Spain, has a majority of people who are not interested in bullfights and associated events. Please see Attachment #B.
Many colleagues within CULTURE WITHOUT CRUELTY working toward a better world find it difficult to find a reason as to why in your country, in your beautiful city, there can be such dangerous and violent entertainment, filled with blood and inevitably ending in cruelty upon the exhausted animals, which are then showered with all kinds of abuse even from young women hitting them from the barricades, while enormous amounts of underage alcohol drinking by very young women., men, and even grown men observed pouring drinks from the trunks of their cars in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Marcela Andre Lopez).
Sadly, this situation has caused a distancing by these young people from a plethora of human virtues which have been classic traditions with which the city of San Miguel de Allende was founded: a place for renewed contact with culture, the musical arts and Mexico’s independence from Spain.
With this situation of the “Sanmiguelada” we see a disgraceful loss of human virtues and sensitivity, and the previously renowned chastity of young Mexican women which were the norm within the traditional Mexican family. Young women in 2006 were observed as follows during “Sanmiguelada,” one was ranting incoherently and sitting on the floor without a shirt on in the town square, and several women lowering their pants on the street to go to the bathroom since they are either 1) very drunk 2) out of time 3) cannot afford restaurants 4) everyone else is doing it. (Marcela Andre Lopez).
The Main Square (Jardin Principal) and all areas surrounding it are reportedly covered with garbage, bottles, excrement and urine, and drunken young people in the “Sanmiguelada” – they also sleep in cars, using the streets as a toilet, and rivers of urine run downhill on the sides of Canal Street, per native residents and witnesses in the neighborhood. Among other grave concerns, this is not hygienic, nor conducive for the public health of the community. We call on the international bodies of medical and health services to support your commendable decision to cancel this aberration of an event, the “Sanmiguelada” which wastes the always-needed resources in San Miguel Allende and the surrounding rural communities so much in need of basic and improved medical and city services.
May we offer the recommendation to you from diverse neighboring countries that San Miguel Allende forever quit using bulls for the entertainment of the largely drunken teenagers who participate in the “Sanmiguelada” which has formed a condition of a very fragile moral character which does not promote the nation of Mexico to a better designation above Third World status.
For your consideration, please see Attachment #A of the diverse groups against the use of the bulls for this entertainment. The senior conference for animal rights is about to be held in Los Angeles, California, with many well-organized groups from around the world, and there is a danger of their being mobilized en-masse to form a boycott of San Miguel de Allende if they are informed of what happens in “Sanmiguelada.”
Mahatma Gandhi said that one could know the character of a culture by seeing the way they treat their most defenseless members. We understand from (Marcela Andre Lopez) one of your residents that a bull collapsed in front of her store at San Francisco No. 7 in 2006. The bull was exhausted an hour before, went around the block again and fell in front of this address. When this happens, it seems to be the practice to cut the tail of the animal with a pocket knife to jolt it up back on its feet so that it can be “fought” with a cape by the participants and the “entertainment” of the thousands in the crowd watching.
This bull was supposed to have been taken into the stables two hours before when the scheduled event was due to have ended. According to the owner of the store at San Francisco No. 7, (Marcela Andre Lopez), the crowd went wild with disapproval and threats with whistles (CULTURE WITHOUT CRUELTY NOTE: “chiflidos”= whistles in Mexico are total disapproval from the literally thousands in the crowd) and threats to the person (Marcela Andre Lopez) for having been the only person who came forward to admonish the man who was jabbing the knife into the tail of the bull, telling the man with the knife to stop it and to leave the bull alone without further torture.
The crowd whistled disapproval because their “entertainment” was put to an end and the bull did not get up without further knife jabs. The bull was so hurt that it was taken away by forklift into a truck and later died.
The person who spoke up on behalf of the bull (Marcela Andre Lopez) had to hide for two hours until the crowd dispersed to avoid angry and unjust retaliation from the crowd as having been the “culprit” who ended their “entertainment” with the exhausted bull.
Mexico is a civilized nation, but unfortunately its use of bulls for entertainment is a drawback to its posture among other nations who frown on such customs and label the country as barbaric, unethical or cruel, based on their perceptions as spectators from other parts of the globe. Not using animals for entertainment this way would elevate Mexico’s standing as a more ethical, humane, and peaceful nation.
Designation of San Miguel de Allende as a World Heritage Site would be an award earned not only for its architectural beauty, but also for its culture without cruelty, and respect of living beings and the environment. This would be an excellent example for cities and nations around the world.
We thank you in advance for your continued and permanent ban on the “Sanmiguelada,” knowing that this will be the most beneficial decision for your beautiful city, the state of Guanajuato and Mexico as a nation.
We send our warmest greetings, sincerely,
_____________________________________
Name
Contact information
Attachments: #A, #B, #C, and #D.
1) Attachment #A (Groups for the prevention of cruelty to animals)
CONFERENCE IN LOS ANGELES, 19 JULY 2007.
At end of this document.
2) Attachment #B
UNITED NATIONS DECREE ON BULLS FOR ENTERTAINMENT (Tauromaquia): The United Nations (UN) approved the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights: “No animal will be subjected to bad treatment nor acts of cruelty.”
Additionally, in 1980, UNESCO, maximum world authority on the subjects of Education and Culture declared: “Tauromaquia (bullfighting and bulls for entertainment) is detestable, and commercialized utilizing torture and killing of animals in public. It traumatizes sensitive children and adults. It aggravates the mental conditions of psychopaths attracted to viewing blood, violence and torture.. It distorts in an unnatural way the relationship between human beings and animals. It creates a horrific and serious challenge to the sense of morals, education, science and culture.”
According to a 2002 Gallup Poll, 70% of Spaniards are not at all interested in bullfights.
And 74% in Catalonia are in favor of banning in Catalonia (DEMOSCOPIA, November 2004). Bullfighting is banned since 1991 in the Canary Islands. (GALLUP, Julio 2002).
Sources:
http://www.gerardrodriguez.org/antitauromaquia/#lasnacionesunidas
http://www.antitauromaquia.org/
www.actionagainstpoisoning.com/page10/page24/page24.html
attachment #C
Memorable quotes compiled on the subject:
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” – Mahatma Gandhi
"One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it". - Margaret Mead
"My doctrine is this: That if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and we do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt". - Anna Sewel, Author of Black Beauty; Autobiography of a Horse
“Cruelty has cursed the human family for countless ages. It is almost impossible for one to be cruel to animals and kind to humans. If children are permitted to be cruel to their pets and other animals, they easily learn to get the same pleasure from the misery of fellow humans. Such tendencies can easily lead to crime." - Fred A. McGran, 1895
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope ... And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring these ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance ."- Robert F. Kennedy, 1966
"Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes - goodwill among men and peace on earth." - Albert Einstein
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" - Gandhi (1869-1948)
ATTACHMENT #D
CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN THE RED CROSS PARTICIPATION IN THE “SANMIGUELADA” POSSIBLE CONSIDERATIONS:
La “Sanmiguelada” HA CREADO NECESIDAD QUE ES EMERGENCIA ARTIFICIAL Y DESPERDICIO DE RECURSOS EN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE.
(The “Sanmiguelada” has created a need that is an artificial emergency and a waste of Red Cross resources in San Miguel de Allende). The president of the local chapter is an hotelier.
Fraud, Waste or Abuse - Concern Connection LineThank you for your support. The American Red Cross is a non-profit humanitarian organization that relies on the generosity of the American public. The Red Cross has a zero tolerance policy toward fraud, waste and abuse. We rely on your eyes and ears. If you suspect fraud you may report it 2 ways.
1. You can contact our Concern Connection Line which is a 24-hour, confidential and anonymous, toll-free line that provides American Red Cross staff, volunteer and members of the public a way to report concerns or questions regarding potentially illegal, unsafe or unethical conduct. That number is 888-309-9679.
2. You may also e-mail your concerns to fraudalert@usa.redcross.org.
Examples of some issues that should be reported include:
Theft, fraud or any other dishonest conduct
Discrimination or harassment
Waste or abuse of Red Cross resources
Conflicts of interest
Unsafe situations
http://www.redcross.org/contactus/#CCL
MISION DE LA CRUZ ROJA (Muestreo de Reynosa, Tamps) Sample of Mexican city:
Nuestra mison: Proporcionar atencion de primeros auxilios preservando la prioridad de las urgencias con apego a los principios de humanidad, imparcialidad, neutralidad, independencia, voluntariado, unidad y universalidad, asi como coadyudar en otros servicios para el alivio y prevencion del sufrimiento humano.
Nuestra visión: Contar con los recursos necesarios para cubrir al 100% los servicios de emergencia que requiere la comunidad y contar con unas instalaciones adecuadas para atender las necesidades de (nuestra comunidad).
Red Cross Mission in Spanish, : to provide first aid services with priority for emergencies according to the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteerism, unity and universality, as well as collaborating with other services to provide relief and prevention of human suffering.
Red Cross Vision: To have the sufficient resources to cover 100% of the emergency services required by the community and to have the adequate venue to attend to community needs.
ATTACHMENT #A – THESE ORGANIZATIONS ARE ORGANIZED AGAINST ANIMAL VIOLENCE AND WOULD BECOME A POSSIBLE BOYCOTT AGAINST ALL OF SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE.
PLEASE SEE MAIN WEBPAGE FOR COLOR BANNERS OF ATTACHMENT #आ
ह्त्त्प://कुल्तुरसिन्क्रुएल्दद्.गूग्लेपगेस.कॉम
Thank you.
culturasincrueldad@gmail.com
