Anti-bullfighting activists fear that allowing a 10-year-old to engage in the bloody pastime could lead to a slippery slope (envisioned above).

Officials in the south of France are preventing a 10-year-old from engaging in organized bull-fighting, reports Time magazine.

Even though the boy, Michel LagravÈre Peniche, was slated to appear in a bloodless version of the traditionally gruesome bout, activists are using the controversy to draw attention to their anti-bullfighting campaign.

But bullfighting backers, like the mayor of the town where the 10-year-old boy lives, says the activists are being paternalistic spoil-sports:

“It’s seen here by most people as an injustice and a mean-spirited effort to impose one kind of thinking on attitudes and events rooted in tradition,” he said.

takepart by signing a petition to ban bullfighting.