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RUNNING OF THE BULLS

PAMPLONA

Six gored in ‘war-like’ Pamplona bull run

UPDATED: Six people were gored by bulls early on Friday morning during one of the most dangerous bull runs in Pamplona history.

Published: 8 July 2016 09:35 CEST
Six gored in 'war-like' Pamplona bull run
A participant is tossed by a Cebada Gago fighting bull in the Mercaderes curve on the second day of the San Fermin bull run in Pamplona, Photo: AFP

After a relatively calm first bull run on Thursday, the San Fermin’s second running of the bulls for 2016 was described as chaotic, dangerous and long.

In pics: Pamplona turns 'war zone' for Friday bull run

The first goring took place only a matter of seconds into the run while the pack of rampaging animals quickly split up as some bulls decided to chase individual runners.

Only two of the bulls involved in the exceptionally long run were kept under relative control, while Spanish media outlets described the ensuing chaos as like a war zone.

While six people were gored, it could have been worse. At one point, a bull looked set to charge two runners and gore them with its horns only to be stopped when a fellow bull confronted the animal, according to Spain’s El País newspaper.

On their official website, event organizers rated Friday's “crazy” bull run an incredibly dangerous 90 out of 100 and noted it was the most dangerous run since July 12th, 2007 when seven people were gored.

Five people were injured during the first bull run on Thursday, one of them seriously, but none were gored.

SEE ALSO: A survivor's guide to running with the bulls in Pamplona

At least 16 people have died in the bull runs made famous by Ernest Hemingway, with the most recent death coming in 2009.

Before this year's event, organizers were keen to stress participants could die.

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ANIMALS

PETA offers cash to ban Pamplona’s famous running of the bulls forever

With the news last week that the Spanish city of Pamplona in Navarra has been forced to cancel its bull running fiesta for the second year running due to the Covid crisis, animal rights activists have seized on the opportunity to call for it to be banned permanently.

Published: 9 February 2021 13:57 CET
PETA offers cash to ban Pamplona’s famous running of the bulls forever
A shot from the encierro on July 7th 2019. Photo: AFP

PETA are writing to the mayor of Pamplona with the offer of €298,000 if the Navarran city ceases the use of bulls during their fiesta altogether.

“People around the world, including in Spain, say it’s past time the torment and slaughter of animals for human entertainment were stopped,” says PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk in her appeal to Pamplona mayor, Enrique Maya.

“Now is the moment to be on the right side of history. We hope you will accept our offer and allow Pamplona to reinvent itself for the enjoyment of all.”

Each morning during the eight day festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, which bursts into celebration at midday on July 6th, six fighting bulls and six steers are released to run through the narrow streets of the old town to the bullring where the bulls are killed in the evening corridas.

Hundreds run alongside the animals in the morning dash which often results in gorings, and injuries from being stomped on after runners lose their footing in the crowds.

The festival, which was made world famous by Ernest Hemingway, who set his 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” during San Fermin, attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to the party each year.

The festival, which sees Pamplona’s population swell from just under 200,000 to more than a million, is estimated to bring an annual boost of €74 million to Pamplona businesses, according to an association of fighting bull breeders.

PETA’s offer is the latest in a long campaign to ban what it calls “Pamplona’s annual bloodbath”.

Together with Spanish groupAnimaNaturalis, the activists stage peaceful protests ahead of the start of the festival year.

The city’s former mayor, Joseba Asirón, supported the protests, describing them as “fair and honest”.

Speaking to reporters about the groups’ calls to remove bull runs from the festival, he said, “[T]his is a debate that sooner or later we will have to put on the table. For a very simple reason, and that is that basing the festival on the suffering of a living being, in the 21st century, is something that, at best, we have to rethink.”

Since the pandemic began festivals across Spain have been cancelled but corridas were allowed last summer with limited occupancy and with social distancing and Covid-19 measures in place.

But although Spain’s bullfighting lobby is strong, there is a general trend away from it.

In a poll published in 2019 by online newspaper El Español, over 56 percent of Spaniards said they were against bullfighting, while only 24.7 were in favour. Some 18.9 percent said they were indifferent.

Support was significantly higher among conservative voters, it showed.

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