Will Pamplona Replace Running of the Bulls With Viral T Rex Race?
With 30 bulls dead and at least 22 humans gored or seriously injured so far at this year’s Running of the Bulls, the San Fermín festival continues to be a vestige of a far less enlightened time when people didn’t understand that animals can feel pain and fear and thought nothing of putting fellow humans in harm’s way.
So, after a humorous video of a group of humans in Tyrannosaurus rex costumes racing around a track went viral, PETA sprang into action and sent a letter to the mayor of Pamplona suggesting that the city replace the dangerous, archaic, and horrendously cruel Running of the Bulls with its own version of a T rex race.
If Pamplona wants to carry on hosting an event reminiscent of the Stone Age, a T rex race is just the ticket. To help ease the switch, we even offered to cover the cost of the dinosaur costumes for all the race participants.
If Pamplona wants to carry on hosting an event reminiscent of the Stone Age, a T. rex race is just the ticket! PETA will pay for dinosaur costumes if Mayor of Pamplona leaves bulls in peace and replaces Running of the Bulls with this hilarious race. pic.twitter.com/j9JHOLABM6
— PETA UK (@PETAUK) July 12, 2019
This fun, family-friendly alternative to the Running of the Bulls would leave bulls in peace and harm no one, and it has already proved wildly popular.
Running of the Bulls
More than 125 Spanish towns and cities have declared themselves anti-bullfighting. But in Pamplona, terrified bulls are forced to run along narrow streets on their way to a violent death in the bullring, often slipping and sliding along the way. Once there, men taunt, exhaust, and stab each bull with a lance and several harpoon-like banderillas until he becomes weakened from blood loss. Then, the matador stabs the exhausted animal with a sword, and if he doesn’t die straight away, other weapons are used to cut his spinal cord. Many bulls are paralysed but still conscious as their ears or tail are cut off to be given to the matador as trophies.
What You Can Do for Bulls
- Speak up. Take action to end the killing of bulls in Pamplona:
- Never attend a bullfight. Tourism is one of the industry’s main excuses for carrying on with this abhorrent bloodbath. Even though most visitors who witness the cruelty of a bullfight never, ever want to see one again, by that point, the money has been paid and the damage done.
- Don’t run with the bulls. Since all the bulls forced to participate in this cruel spectacle are eventually stabbed to death in the bullring, taking part in the Running of the Bulls supports the abuse and killing of animals.
