The protests must go on
(31.08.02)
Dear Friends,
The 29th August 2002 was a historical day for the
defense of animals in Portugal, as well as in the whole world. The Global Action
Against Bullfights in Portugal was a very successful event, involving
demonstrations held in front of Portuguese Embassies and Consulates in 20 cities
(besides Lisbon, where the demonstration was held
in front of the Spanish Embassy): Madrid and Barcelona (Spain), Rome and Milan
(Italy), Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), London (England), The Hague
(Holland), Vienna (Austria), Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich (Germany), Athens
(Greece), Washington, D.C. and New York City (USA), Tel Aviv (Israel), Rio de
Janeiro, São Paulo, Fortaleza and Florianopolis (Brazil).
The goals of this action were totally achieved,
whether because all the demonstrations were very successful (although some
Portuguese diplomats did not behave appropriately), whether because the
Portuguese media were very impressed with the Global Action and gave great media
coverage to it (which assured us that the Portuguese politicians, namely the
Portuguese President, knew what went on all day).
Although two bulls were killed in the day of the
action (two more were killed yesterday and a bull and a cow will be killed
today), it was very important that such a protest happened throughout the world.
From the impact that this action had, we are absolutely sure that all this
effort worked. So, on behalf of ANIMAL, I wish to thank you once more for all
your help to make this Global Action come true. We at ANIMAL are deeply grateful
for all that you have done to help us.
Our objective is to gather all this
material and information to put it in our website (which is at www.animal.org.pt, but does not have
an English version yet, and it has not yet been publicised in
Portugal).
In which concerns the anti-bullfighting strategy
that we have to develop in Portugal, we believe that only economic pressure will
force the Portuguese politicians to ban bullfights, since they do not care about
animals or morals, not even about democracy, as they totally disrespect the will
of the overwhelming majority of the Portuguese people. But they fear economic
damage.
So, we are preparing a boycott to the Portuguese
tourism that will last while bullfights remain legal in Portugal. We are already
sure that we will be able to have such a boycott at least of the UK tourists,
but we would like to have a boycott of tourists from other
countries.
One thing is for sure: if we were all able to
organise the Global Action and make a real success of it in less than one month,
we proved ourselves to be very efficient in the defense of animals. This tells
me that, although animals are still brutally victimised all over the world for
all kinds of reasons, things are changing and will keep changing as long as we
continue working together so that one day our task may be absolutely fulfilled.
Until then, let us all keep struggling for this ethical revolution...