The Culture of Bulls
As has been said previously, sooner or later a visitor to Arles will encounter that matter of bullfighting. The world of bulls, breeding them, raising them, eating them and fighting them has been part of the Arlesian culture for many years.
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If you wish to understand the breeding of bulls on the Camargue (and the nearby Alpilles and the Crau) you should start by attempting to avoid the confusion as to what is or is not a “fighting bull” or an “eating bull”. There are these two types but there are sub-divisions in some of these categories.
Firstly, however, a slight preamble is necessary. The French, as a rule, are very proud of their language. The famous Académie Française was founded to ensure its preservation and purity. However, in the South, whenever matters taurine are discussed, French and Spanish terms are used interchangeably. Thus a Spanish bull bred specifically for fighting will be called a toro bravo. In France it will be a toreau brave. But in everyday French the two co-exist quite happily and a large range of Spanish bullfighting expressions and words appear seamlessly in French texts and conversation.
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There are currently more than 25,000 head of cattle on or around the Camargue of which approximately 5000 are bred as fighting bulls. Most don't make the grade and never fight as a consequence. Fewer that 200 do. It should be noted too that, irrespective of how they die, in time, they all get eaten by us!
The more ancient and indigenous of the two breeds is called the Biou (Raço di Biòu).
It is a dark-coloured animal, generally black, sometimes dark brown. Its size rarely exceeds 1.30 m for males and 1.20 m for females. Its weight, varying according to its feeding method, is between 300 and 450 kg for males and 200 to 270 kg for females.
Other than as a source of meat, these small bulls are used for the Courses Camarguaises; a sport in the bull ring where young men try to pluck coloured ribbons from between the horns of the charging bull. This is a local Provençale sport and is followed with great fervour by the public.
Do not, however, think that the Biòu are in any way tame. They are probably not quite as aggressive as the taureaux de combats, or anywhere near as big and heavy but they remain bulls. In 2013 a pair of German cyclists stopped to look at some young Biòux fighting amongst themselves in a field and one of them was gored to death when one of the bulls decided that a passing tourists was a more important opponent than one of his own blood brothers.
The second breed is the Race de Combat or toreaux braves (toros bravos).
These are intended for the bullfight, Spanish style, to the death. Fighting bulls were first imported into the region from Spain in 1869 by Joseph Yonnet whose descendants still breed bulls in the Camargue. The coat is generally black or brown, but can present a diversity of colors, sometimes striped or spotted. Its size is 140 cm for males, and 120 cm for females. Its true weight is 400 to 650 kg for males, and 200 to 400 kg for females. Fully fit, fighting males can weigh up to 750 kg.
While the Biou pass into the food chain through the usual system of slaughter in an abattoir, fighting bulls find their way to our plates via two different types of fight to the death. A Novillada and a Corrida de Toros. While both are full fights including the death of the bull in the Spanish style, the former is for less experience bullfighters and bulls that those that face the full Corrida. The criteria (and cost) of the bulls for a Corrida de Toros is much higher and exacting than for the Novillada.
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Currently seventeen breeders of the twenty one licences held to bred fighting bulls in France are registered in the area around the Camargue. However, very few of these actually provide bulls for bullfighting. It is fair to say that these breeders produce animals that can “end up” in a variety of ways, only one of which is as an opponent for a qualified and experienced matador (who has taken his alternativa and so graduated to the big time in a full corrida. Vanishingly few.
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Very rarely, - very rarely - if the public and the matador believe that the bull has fought extremely bravely – and the breeder of the bull agrees to have it return to the ranch – the event's president may grant a pardon (indulto) by waving a yellow/orange flag. If the indulto is granted (the matador, the breeder and the public must all agree), the bull's life is spared; it leaves the ring alive and is returned to its home ranch for treatment and then to become a semental, or seed-bull, for the rest of its life. It is never allowed to fight again. This is not just sentimentality. Few bullfighters will step in the ring with a bull that has been through the process before. The bull has learned too much and will be too dangerous an opponent.
​Bulls who are deemed good enough to be a taureax de combat have still another hurdle to pass before they claim their moment of fame in the bullring. Even if a bull is good enough for a thought good enough for a novillada, it may still some (many) years for that breeder’s bulls to be suitable for a full corrida. Most of the Camargue breeders have not and don’t look like passing this particular last hurdle. The number of Camargue-bred bulls that is allowed to be available to sale to organisers of a corrida is vanishingly small. A few more for sale to novilladas but, in all, very few.
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There are thus very few true fighting bulls being bred on the Camargue. The economics of keeping a bull isolated, very well fed for four or five years and then getting a decent price for him as a bull for the Arles bull fights mean that imports from Spain and Portugal are increasingly taking over. To their great credit a very few breeders still persist.
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Thus all the bulls produced on the Camargue in whatever form can be, and mostly are, eaten. There are also breed lines of fighting bulls that for some reason are not suitable for fighting and are either eaten or passed into the breeding lines of the Biòu. Unsuitable Biòu, bred for the Courses Camarguaises are also eaten either because they are deemed to be unsatisfactory of the non-lethal games or have come to the end of their playing life.
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As all the full taureau de combat that are killed in the ring are subsequently butchered and brought to the table, very few of the bulls bred on the Camargue, no matter what was their breeders intention, end up other than in a daube pot and in front of you and me, knife and fork in hand.#
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This is in addition for the breeders of small bulls that are intended solely for meat. In 1996 beef from the two breeds of the Camargue, or from cross-breeds between them, received Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) status as "Taureau de Camargue"
The final destination of all the bulls that are bred on the Camargue!
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A final point to be stressed in that if you go to a bullfight you will probably think that the whole thing is about the matador (don’t call him or her a toreador). Many people might agree with you. The image of the blood-stained torso or pair of buttocks of a twisting, balletic bullfighter is the one that comes readily to mind. However, many of the audience are there for the bull not the bull fighter. The true aficionado is there for the bull. It is a matter of the greatest pride amongst the breeders that they present their bulls to the arena in the best possible condition, fit, aggressive, intelligent and courageous.
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Similarly to the world of horse racing especially on the flat. Many people are interested the breeding. The owners certainly are. The jockey is just an (expensive) hired hand hired to show off the horse. Matadors tend to fall into the same category. The ability to breed the animal is what counts to these people who are all really farmers at heart.
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The arguments for and against bullfighting continue and this is not the place to contribute to a debate that is usually as irrational as it is passionate. However, a visitor to Arles might do well to remember that whatever their personal feelings on the matter, fighting bulls is part of a culture that is felt very deeply by most of the people who live in the area and these are the people who are your hosts. You are their guests. As when one is invited as a guest to someone’s house, it is courteous to accept ones hosts idiosyncrasies no matter how much one disagrees with them.