The final of the Bataille des Reines was celebrated on Sunday 25 October, the historic alpine event which every year transforms the Aosta Valley into the theater of challenges between cows. At the Puchoz Alpine Stadium in Aosta, thousands of spectators witnessed the coronation of the Reine des Reines, the queen of queens, at the end of a selection that began in the spring qualifying stages between Valtournenche, Gressoney, Cogne and Sarre.
The organizers and local farmers strongly defend the event, underlining that it is a ritual completely devoid of bloody violence or bloodshed. The duels feature pregnant cows from the native Valdostana Pezzata Nera, Valdostana Castana and Hérens breeds, divided into 6 weight categories starting from those under 390 kg. According to supporters, the clash reproduces the natural instinct with which animals establish the hierarchy of the herd in the pasture: two cows push horns against horns and the challenge stops as soon as one of the two turns and walks away, decreeing surrender without any human intervention with sticks or shouts.
The ethics of entertainment and the need to overcome violence against the public
However, despite the guarantees on the absence of direct physical injuries, every year the event raises a growing wave of indignation from activists, animal rights associations and citizens who ask for it to be definitively overcome. Many highlight how it is profoundly uneducational to transform the stress, anguish and territorial aggression of pregnant animals into a stadium show peppered with applause and cheering.
Although it is not a bullfight, the choice to incite the cows in an artificial arena, selecting the specimens based on their combative temperament to compete for decorated cowbells, represents a form of exploitation that masks oppression under the veil of folklore. Contemporary culture requires a profound revision of these customs: promoting and sponsoring clashes between living beings as Sunday entertainment risks legitimizing a logic of domination and violence that modern society should overcome, consigning similar manifestations to a past that no longer has any reason to recur.
