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Lodge protest against Pamplona bull run
13 July 2004 The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has called on the mayor of Pamplona to end the cruel bull run held in the village every year. Bulls used in this event are subsequently killed in a bullring. Please lodge a protest with the mayor and ask her to show compassion and end the suffering of the bulls during the San Fermin Festival. If you plan to boycott Pamplona on future visits to Spain, please point this out in your correspondence. Contact details:
Honourable Sra. Dña. Yolanda Barcina Angulo
Email: pamplona.net@ayto-pamplona.es
Running of the Bulls: The Facts
The running of the bulls is tourist-driven, yet most visitors are unaware of the cruelty that bulls are subjected to before, during and after the run. Electric-shock prods and sharp sticks are typically used to torment and frighten the bulls into a stampede. As the animals flee, they sustain bruises, cuts and broken bones. In the bullfights following the run, bulls are often intentionally debilitated with tranquillisers and beatings and have petroleum jelly rubbed in their eyes so that they are less able to resist their tormentors’ attacks. According to The New York Times, as many as 90 per cent of tourists who attend bullfights never return after witnessing the animals’ suffering. Torturing and killing a defenceless animal should not be celebrated because of tradition. People have always tried to use tradition to justify horrible things such as child labour and slavery. But tradition doesn’t make something right, as has been proven in Zamora, Spain where the throwing of live goats from towers in the name of saints was recently ended. Bullfighting is a cruel blood sport that should have been relegated to the pages of history long ago. Tourists visit Pamplona to hear the music, eat the food, and otherwise have a good time. They don’t want to contribute to animal cruelty, but most have no idea that the same bulls who run through the town will suffer a bloody death in the evening. The magnificent animals that slip and slide on the streets of Pamplona during the Running of the Bulls will be barbarically killed each night all in the name of tradition.
According to the Associated Press, (28th November, 2000) a study found that 20 per cent of bulls are drugged before they step into the ring. Of 200 bulls, "1 in 5 had been given anti-inflammatory drugs, which mask injuries that could sap the animal's strength." More than 40,000 bulls are barbarically slaughtered in rings in Spain each year. (New York Times February 11th, 2001). It is no sport to pick on an animal. It is dishonest to pretend the animal is equally matched, when, in the case of bullfighting, the bull is fed laxatives to debilitate him days before the fight, he has the muscles cut in his neck to prevent him from lifting his head up all the way, and he usually has Vaseline or other petroleum jelly smeared in his eyes to affect his vision. Many Spanish and Mexican citizens find this gruesome blood sport unacceptable: the cities of Calonge, Tossa de Mar, Vilamacolum, La Vajol, the Canary Islands, the U.S., and parts of Europe have outlawed all bullfighting. If Spain wants to increase tourism and be a progressive country, it needs to catch up with the times and stop killing animals for entertainment. There is a strong anti-bullfighting movement in Spain. More than 1 million Spaniards have signed a petition to ban it. More Info: Bullfighting Cruelty
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Petition
For general information on the ICABS campaign against bullfighting, please visit our Ban Bullfighting Website at: www.banbloodsports.com/bullfighting. Includes gallery, video clips and petition.
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