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PAMPLONA

Americans seriously injured after being gored at Spain’s Pamplona bull run

A 46-year-old American was in a serious condition after he and two others were gored during the first day of the running of the bulls in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona on Sunday, regional authorities said.

Americans seriously injured after being gored at Spain's Pamplona bull run
A bull jumps over participants in the bullring after the second bullrun the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain on July 8, 2019. Photo: AFP

The American, aged 46, was in a serious condition after being gored in the neck, said a medical report from the Navarra regional authorities.

Another American, aged 23, and a Spaniard were also hospitalised after being gored during the bull run, one of the most crowded events of the week-long San Fermin festival. Both men were gored in the left thigh but their condition was not as serious.

Another three people, all Spaniards and aged between 18 and 38, were also hurt during the run.

The Red Cross in Spain had warned that the event would be especially dangerous because of the large number of people.

On each morning of the festival, at eight o'clock, six bulls are released from a corral to run through the narrow, cobbled streets of the old town.

Hundreds of people dressed in white shirts and red scarfs, try to run ahead of bulls to the city's bull ring, where the animals are killed by matadors in afternoon bullfights.

Sunday's run was a relatively fast one, the bulls taking just two minutes and 41 seconds to cover the 848 metres (925 yards) through Pamplona's narrow streets to the bull ring.

The week-long festival, which also involves religious processions, concerts and all-night drinking, attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.

Bull fights and bull runs are a traditional part of summer festivals across Spain.

Anyone over the age of 18 can take part in the Pamplona runs though authorities warn of the risks. Since 1911, 16 people have been killed in the event. The last death was in 2009.

The San Fermin festival and the running of the bulls was immortalised in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”.

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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.

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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