- Pamplona club federation president said she ‘can see the event without bulls’
Spaniards are left red at the idea that Pamplona’s famous San Fermin bull run could go ahead without the stampeding beasts.
A debate has erupted in Spain after the new president of the federation that helps organize the annual festival said concerns about animal cruelty meant it would be better if the bulls were not involved.
Rakel Arjol, the newly appointed president of the Pamplona Federation of Clubs, which helps run the historic event, said: “I would like San Fermin to have no bulls, that is my personal opinion.”
“I can easily live without seeing the running of the bulls or without going to bullfights,” she told the regional newspaper. El Diario de Navarre.
The encierro sees thousands of runners sprint through the narrow cobbled streets of Pamplona’s old town as they try to avoid the horns of six fighting bulls.
The runners sprint through the streets of Pamplona and try to outrun the stampeding beasts behind them
During the morning event, the bulls run 800 meters alongside competitors dressed in red and white.
The animals then arrive at the Plaza de Toros for an afternoon of bullfighting before being killed by a matador with a sword.
Arjol suggested that bullfights are possible without the preceding runs, and that other forms of entertainment are increasingly being offered that could one day replace the bloody battles.
But many in Spain and beyond have wondered what the point of the festival would be without the bulls.
Alexander Fiske-Harrison, a British amateur matador and bullfighting expert, told it The times that the suggestion ‘shows a detachment from reality.’
‘What do they want to organize: the largest student party in the world? But without the bulls, the young Australians and Americans wouldn’t be there anyway,” he argued.
Humane Society International says that approximately 180,000 bulls are killed in fighting each year, and that the practice is cruel because the animals “suffer a prolonged death in the bullring.”
During the morning event, the bulls run 800 meters alongside competitors dressed in red and white
Spain’s bull runs not only raise animal welfare concerns, but are also dangerous for the people who take part.
In September, a father-of-two in Valencia died after being gored to death by a raging bull as he frantically tried to escape through the fence.
Jose Antonio Subies, 61, died in a hospital in Valencia after suffering blood injuries that affected his liver and one of his lungs.
At least five runners have been taken to hospital due to injuries sustained during last year’s event in Pamplona, according to emergency services.
The 2023 festival marked the 100th anniversary of American author Ernest Hemingway’s first visit to the festival, which he made internationally famous in his 1926 novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’.