An animal rights group has called on the Mayor of Preston to boycott the city's French twin, after it emerged the town hosts bullfights.

It comes after French activists, Radical Anti-Corrida Committee (CRAC), sent a DVD with graphic images and a letter to Preston's 57 councillors, urging them to write in opposition to the practice to the Mayor of Nimes, Jean-Paul Fournier.

But Preston Mayor Coun Bhikhu Patel has rejected the request by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and said he wants to go in person to Nimes to speak to officials there about the practice. He and a delegation from Preston are due to visit Nimes next month to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the twinning.

"I will be speaking to the mayor of Nimes to reason with him and say that it should be a display performance rather than killing the animal," said Coun Patel, whose Hindu religion, regards the cow as a sacred animal.

President of CRAC, Jean-Pierre Garrigues, said: "Preston's twin town Nimes, is a bastion of bull torturing, and we think your city ought to know this before they get involved with any cultural or commercial exchanges." He said about 250 bull are slaughtered annually in the arenas of Nimes.

Sean Gifford, director of European campaigns at PETA, said the mayor should cancel his September trip and Preston should declare itself opposed to bull fighting."

Coun Patel said: "Even before we had received this information we had declined an invitation to attend the bull fight when we visit in September. I was horrified when I watched the video, I had to stop watching it after a few minutes."

Bull fighting in France dates back to 1853, and it was legally recognised as a sport in 1951.

A spokesman for the Twinning in Nimes, said: "The anti-bull fighting associations are very active in Nimes, but it is a strong tradition which two million people attend each year."