Child matador bullfight to go ahead in France

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) — A banned bullfight involving a 10-year-old child matador will go ahead Thursday in the southern French town of Arles despite protests from anti-corrida campaigners, organisers said.

Michelito, a Franco-Mexican who is a bullfighting star in Mexico, is in France to take part in several "becerradas" -- bullfights for beginners in which the calves are not killed.

But French authorities twice cancelled the event last week, in Arles and nearby Fontvieille, following protests by an anti-bullfighting alliance complaining about the presence of a minor in the ring.

Michelito has killed 60 bulls in Mexico since he was six years old. The anti-corrida alliance said it targeted him over other becerrada participants because "he fights in corridas...