Running of the Bulls in Pamplona is a barbaric event that must be ended - Lucy Ferguson

The Running of the Bulls is held over eight days during Pamplona’s San Fermín festival. Each day, a rocket is launched like a starter pistol at a horse race to startle groups of bulls and steers and start them running through the narrow city streets. The bulls – already tired after enduring long, stressful journeys to the city in the summer heat – are then chased and prodded by hordes of people, many of whom are drunk. It’s not uncommon for the frightened bulls to be injured during the run, and every year, hospitals are full of humans who’ve been gored and trampled. At the end of the run, which can take up to 30 minutes, the bulls are forced into a ring where, one-by-one, they will be killed.

Once inside the ring, each bull becomes the victim of a bloody spectacle. Tormenters stab him with harpoon-like banderillas and a lance, leaving him disoriented and weak from blood loss. The matador then provokes the bull into lunging and attempts to stab him through the heart with a sword. If the caped killer misses the heart and punctures the bull’s lungs instead, the tortured animal will die in agony, drowning in his own blood.

While killing the bull is the objective, the entire process is a theatrical farce in which the bull is the unwilling jester. If the matador kills the bull, the animal’s ears and tail will be cut off as grisly trophies. If not, an executioner is brought out to sever the spinal cord, which often does not kill the bull but paralyses him, and he will be dragged from the arena still conscious as the next victim is corralled in.

The Spanish public is leading the nation away from such cruel, archaic pursuits, and today, more than 125 Spanish towns and cities have taken a stance against bullfighting. Surveys indicate that just 8 per cent of the Spanish population attends bullfights.

As ethical tourism becomes more popular and people turn their backs on animal exploitation, travel companies – which once sold the Running of the Bulls event to naïve tourists as a ‘bucket list’ item – are also ending their promotion of trips that harm animals.

You don’t have to travel to Spain and strip off in the streets to help bulls and other animals who are abused for tourism. You can make a powerful difference by signing PETA’s petition, informing others, and avoiding any form of entertainment in which an unconsenting sentient individual is used.

After all, if you wouldn’t want it done to your dog, you should oppose subjecting any animal to such cruelty.

Lucy Ferguson, who is from Leeds, is a Membership Coordinator at PETA France.