PHOTOS: 100 ‘Death Runners’ Take Over Pamplona
If many of the tourists who turn up in Pamplona, Spain, for the Running of the Bulls each year understood what the festival is really about – the torture and death of frightened animals – they’d probably run the other way.
To open festivalgoers’ eyes, 100 activists from all over the world took part in a powerful protest today in Pamplona’s main square, organised by PETA and the Spanish group AnimaNaturalis.
With faces painted to look like the Grim Reaper, “blood” on their hands and signs reading, “You Run. Bulls Die”, the volunteers sent a sobering message to anyone in doubt about the cruelty that occurs at the annual San Fermín festival.
Every single one of the 48 animals who are chased through the cobbled streets by drunken revellers will later be stabbed to death in the bullring, in front of a jeering crowd. As our hard-hitting video “Bullfighting in 60 Seconds” makes painfully clear, bulls endure prolonged agony as they are goaded by armed men, attacked again and again and collapse on the ground in a pool of their own blood.
As Morrissey eloquently put it earlier this week, “Whatever the results, whatever the motive, the bullfight is systematic torture”.
We’ve been taking part in iconic protests in Pamplona for more than a decade, and we won’t stop until this barbaric activity is relegated to the history books, where it belongs. We’ve also been hitting the bullfighting industry where it hurts – in the pocket. In addition to campaigning against the massive EU subsidies that prop up bullfighting (despite the fact that most Spanish people aren’t interested in it), we’ve also been persuading travel companies such as Thomas Cook and Brittany Ferries to stop promoting the blood sport.
What You Can Do
If you’re visiting Spain, never attend bullfights. And if you see a company advertising or promoting bullfighting in any way, please write to its customer service department to let staff know how disappointed you are. Finally, please share our video so that more people can learn exactly what happens in bullfights – and why the cruelty needs to stop.
