48 Coffins for 48 Bulls
Bulls die bloody deaths in Pamplona every year. It’s bad enough that at the Spanish city’s annual San Fermín festival, terrified animals stumble and fall as they are hounded through the streets by unthinking tourists. But what many people don’t realise is that these bulls are being herded straight towards the bullring – and an agonising death.
In bullfights, bulls are stabbed repeatedly in the back and neck by groups of men on horseback. Sometimes the lances pierce the animals’ lungs, which will then fill up with blood. The matador then enters the scene and attempts to kill the weak, exhausted and bleeding victim with a sword – often missing, so that the severely injured bull is left paralysed but still conscious as he is chained and dragged out of the arena by his horns.
Today, protesters from all around the world gathered to oppose the callous cruelty. For the sombre demonstration, which was organised by PETA in conjunction with the Spanish group AnimaNaturalis, 48 activists, wearing little more than “bull horns”, stood in individual coffins, one for each of the animals who have been condemned to a painful, protracted death in the bullring.
