Mayor of Pamplona Offered Eye-Watering €250k to End Cruel Running of the Bulls Forever

For Immediate Release:

23 April 2020

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

MAYOR OF PAMPLONA OFFERED EYE-WATERING €250K TO END CRUEL RUNNING OF THE BULLS FOREVER     

Festival Cancellation Prompts PETA Proposal 

London – Following the news that this year’s San Fermín festival – and the infamous Running of the Bulls event – will be cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, PETA fired off a letter to the mayor of Pamplona, Enrique Maya Miranda, offering the city a quarter of a million euros if he commits to permanently ending the cruel bull runs and subsequent bullfights.

“With the bullfighting industry in serious financial trouble and opposition to exploiting animals for entertainment ever-growing, it’s past time for Pamplona to end this cruel, archaic spectacle,” say PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk.

In her letter to the mayor, she writes, “We hope you’ll accept our offer. Together, we can begin planning a 2021 San Fermín festival that everyone – including animals and their protectors – will applaud.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – notes that more than 100 Spanish towns and cities have declared themselves against bullfighting. But in Pamplona, at the annual San Fermín festival, terrified bulls are forced to run along narrow streets on their way to a violent death in the bullring. Once there, men stab each bull with a lance and 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.

PETA and Spanish group AnimaNaturalis have protested against Pamplona’s annual bloodbath.  In addition to large demonstrations by animal advocates, the Running of the Bulls also draws protests from women’s rights groups because of the high number of sexual assaults and other acts of violence against women reported during this annual display of machismo.

PETA’s letter is available here.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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