Local director of a CAC40 company promotes bullfighting in Alès, France

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A director of Schneider Electric, a company that claims to be ethical and respectful of life, imposes its taste for the barbarity of bullfights to its employees

Communiqué de presse en français – Comunicado de prensa en español

Arnaud Imatte is the director of a Schneider Electric plant, a CAC 40 company, in Alès (France). He is also directly involved in the management of the bullring of this city, that organizes bullfights every year. If his passion for bullfighting remained in the private sphere, there would be no need to mention the industrial group that employs him.

This is, moreover, what we were told by Mr. Laurent, Vice President of Human Resources Schneider Electric, contacted by us: « Indeed we were not informed of the responsibilities of Mr. Arnaud Imatte in the organization of bullfights in the region of Alès for reasons quite normal, because this commitment is simply his private life; we do not have to know the existence of it as long as it does not contravene provisions of public order or create a characteristic disorder within our company by virtue of its functions. As you rightly point out, our environmental commitments are sincere, but they must remain within the law. Each of us has his beliefs about bullfighting, but it is not up to us to take sides in this debate or to administer any police force in the engagement of our collaborators regarding this practice as long as it does not characterize a situation of trouble in our business. « 

However, within the company in Alès, many events are directly related to bullfighting, like holding a management seminar in a bull farm in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (famous bullfight place in France). These celebrations also have a financial aspect, since Schneider funds allocated by Arnaud Imatte directly support bullfighting in the region. More serious if it were to be proven, the rumour runs internally that the staff unfavourable to bullfights is subject to pressure, harassment, vulgar jokes, insults and threats.

It is worth remembering that 74% of French people want the abolition of bullfights according to several recent polls (see for example the IFOP survey conducted in February 2018 for the 30 Millions d’Amis Foundation) and that such support from Schneider Electric will therefore necessarily be perceived as negative by a large majority of French citizens. Outside French borders, Schneider Electric is particularly well established in India, where, again, the revelation of its collusion with activities of animal torture can only be extremely detrimental to its image.

On the other hand, while Schneider Electric does not fail to refer to the « Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations », it appears that Arnaud Imatte pays little respect to the UN recommendations on the rights of children, since he endorses bullfighting schools, even though the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked France in January 2016 “to change violent traditions and practices that adversely affect the well-being of children, including the prohibition of children’s access to bullfights and associated activities”. Thus, Arnaud Imatte is mentioned by the city of Alès in his very recent presentation of the Ascension Feria 2019, as being one of its organizers (« Arnaud Imatte, aficionado with a torista emeritus culture, member of the Peña Alegria of Dax for more than twenty years, with several presidencies of bullfighting in Dax, amateur of taurine photography, chronicler in the newspaper « Les petites Landaises » since 2008 « ), presentation which announces further, Saturday 1st June, « a Spanish show of discovery with an inter taurine schools exhibition between the schools of the French Center of Bullfighting of Nîmes, Adour Aficion school of South-West and Taurine School of Béziers. » In this case, three of the six French bullfighting schools in activity. Minors as young as 9 years old are trained in such schools to learn how to wound and kill bulls during bullfighting.

The Vice President of Human Resources of Schneider Electric was warned that we would make this matter public, for lack of a satisfactory answer from him. We will therefore disseminate all the information presented in this press release to news agencies in different countries where the group is present, particularly in Europe, North America, Latin America, Japan and India, thanks in part to our partners of the International Antibullfight Network (more than 100 anti-bullfight associations in the world). We ask that any proselytism for bullfighting is strictly prohibited within the facilities of this industrial group, starting with those led by Arnaud Imatte in Alès.

This is what the director of Schneider Electric in Alès is promoting: https://youtu.be/dTg3WrZ2uh8

Thank you.

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