Spain
Injured in bull hunt in Pamplona
A reveler is taken on the horns by a cow at the end of the fourth bull run in Pamplona. photo
© Alvaro Barrientos/AP
Animal rights activists have long criticized festivals like the bull hunt in Pamplona, Spain. Accidents are happening again this year.
Dozens of runners are injured every year in the courage tests of the predominantly young men over the 825-meter-long route. There have been 16 fatalities since 1924, the last in 2009. There are eight runs in total.
The centuries-old festival in honor of the city’s saint, San Fermín, began on Thursday and will end next Friday. Every day in the early morning, six fighting bulls, some of which weigh more than 600 kilograms, and several tame lead oxen are chased through the narrow streets of the old town to the arena. This is where the bullfights take place in the evenings.
Animal rights activists complain that for the animals the bull hunt is actually nothing more than a panic flight through the crowds, which are completely unfamiliar to them. Like bullfighting, it is animal cruelty that must end.