Paris Expo Porte de Versailles is one of the places I avoid the most in Paris: when I came to Paris, I had to visit it three times with other Italian and foreigner students and young researchers: we went once at the "Foire de Paris" (the Fraud Fair) and at least twice to the "Salon des Vignerons indépendants" (the Drunk Fair), which was an absolute, awful bore that gave me a painful headache, not because I had drunk too much (I seldom drink alcohol, and if I do, I never drink more than two glasses, and it's on very rare occasions) but because of the wine's acidity, the noisy and annoying crowd and the excessively intense lighting.
I went to these events at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles just because the others wanted to go and see and I'm sociable enough, but my introverted self was really hurted by this huge, crowded and noisy place. Thank God, I'm not agoraphobic, otherwise I couldn't even imagine myself in such a nightmarish place.
However, there is a fair - an (un)fair, precisely - which is held every year at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles that I have never visited, and I always refuse to visit if someone invites me: it's the Paris International Agricultural Show - in french, the "Salon International de l'Agriculture" or, as I call it, the "Salon International de l'Agri-Torture".
In the picture below, that I have found somewhere on the Web and to which I have added some text, we can see a gentle and lovely cow, whose name is Paysanne (Peasant), winner of a prize at the "Concours agricole 2024", surrounded by a group of men after she has been sold at an auction at the Salon the l'Agri-Torture. Since her birth, this poor creature's life is condemned to an unnatural and horrible death and all these people (the former owners and the new owners) has done and will do for her is just to make her a future victim of slaughtery.
"Congratulations, Paysanne! You are the winner of the "Concours agricole 2024" and you have also won your own death by slaughter! This man has bought you for that! Why don't you smile to the camera?".
"A death for no reason, and death for no reason is MURDER".
Morrissey, Meat is Murder, music by Johnny Marr, from The Smiths' album with the same title, 1986.
Every year, between February and March, there are plenty of people visiting this (un)fair in order to see animals and to show them to children. A friend of mine (who loves animals but, unfortunately, not as much to decide to go vegetarian; I still hope she will change her mind, one day) goes almost every year to this "Salon" because it's the only way to see the animals of the farm in Paris. Last year, an ex colleague of mine invited me to visit the Salon de l'Agri-Torture, but I gently declined and I explained her my reasons.
My love for animals, ALL animals, is too much big and strong to enduring and supporting this horror show: animals standing all-day long in a closed place, exposed to the aggressive electric lightings and the even more aggressive noise of a crowd screaming and touching them: excited children with ignorant parents, arrogant pupils with stupid teachers, and so on.
Do all these people, adults and children, have ever tried to imagine how would they feel if they were at these poor animals' place? I guess they would feel very bad and they would be terribly scared and sad.
Well, there must be some children who (like I did when, as seven-year-old little girl, I went to the circus with my class) will feel the animals' pain and will understand by themself how terrible their life and their future death are.
But, generally, people don't want to imagine the horror behind the show of the "Salon de l'Agri-Torture": they still avoid to see the bloody fil rouge linking this living animals exhibition and the dead animals in their mouth, while they
"savour the flavour of murder"
as Morrissey says in his beautiful and really moving song.
"This story is old, but it goes on".
Morrissey, "Had no one ever", music by Johnny Marr, from the Smiths' album The Queen is Dead, 1986.
Tradition means nothing good nor useful, when it's a cruel one. Unfortunately, I live in a country where the meat consummation per capita is one of the biggest in the whole world:
Even if it's easier now to find vegetarian and sometimes even vegan alternatives in restaurants and bakeries, I still don't know many vegetarian people: few people I know stopped eating meat, but they still eat fish and other few people have just reduced their consummation of meat and dairy products.
The gap is still big from France and Italy, where vegan or vegetarian food is way easier to find, but there is some improvement and I hope the new generation will give a strong contribution for a radical change.
Our planet needs respect and love, and this is possible only by caring about all animals, wildlife and nature.
(C) Vera da Pozzo, Italy is mine... and it owes me a living
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