Running of the Bulls: A Tradition of Cruelty
The magnificent animals who slip and slide on the streets of Pamplona during the “Running of the Bulls” are later barbarically killed – all in the name of “tradition”. Torturing and killing a defenceless animal should not be celebrated as tradition. People have always tried to use tradition to justify horrible things, such as child labour and slavery. But tradition doesn’t make something right. Bullfighting is a cruel blood sport that should have been relegated to the history books a long time ago. No matter what its history is, bullfighting consists of the torture, mutilation and slaughter of animals for entertainment.
The ‘Running of the Bulls’
Bulls are bred in fields and are not accustomed to the noise of the crowd or being surrounded by people. They are kept in crowded, dark enclosures, and when they are prodded onto the streets with electric shocks, they are momentarily blinded by the sunlight. They are terrified and are hit by runners with rolled up newspapers. The corners of the bulls’ route are quite sharp, and the animals often lose their footing and slide into walls, breaking bones and injuring themselves. All the bulls who slip and slide on the streets of Pamplona are running towards a bloody and horrific death in the bullring.
Each year, more than 40,000 bulls are barbarically slaughtered in Spain’s bullrings. Most foreign visitors who witness a bullfight never wish to see one again. They are repulsed, disgusted and saddened by the cruelty of the spectacle.
At best, the term “bullfighting” is a misnomer, as there is usually little competition between a nimble sword-wielding matador (Spanish for “killer”) and a confused, maimed, psychologically tormented and physically debilitated bull.
One of the biggest supporters of bullfighting is the tourist industry. Travel agents and bullfight promoters portray the fight as a festive and fair competition. What they do not reveal is that the bull never has a chance to defend himself, much less to survive.
Bulls are intentionally debilitated by various means, such as having sandbags dropped on their backs. Drugging is also very common. A study conducted by scientists at Spain’s Salamanca University found that 20 per cent of the bulls used for fighting are drugged before they step into the ring. In a sampling of 200 bulls, one in five had been given anti-inflammatory drugs, which mask injuries that could sap animals’ strength.
In a typical bullfight, the bull enters the arena and is approached by picadors – men on blindfolded horses who drive lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles. This impairs the bull’s ability to lift his head. They twist and gouge the lances to ensure a significant amount of blood loss. Then banderilleros enter on foot and proceed to distract the bull and dart around him while plunging banderillas – bright sticks with harpoon points on their ends – into his back. When the bull has become weakened from blood loss, the banderilleros run the bull in more circles until he is dizzy and stops chasing. Finally, the matador appears and, after provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword. If he misses, succeeding only in further mutilating the animal, an executioner is called in to stab the exhausted and submissive animal to death. The dagger is supposed to cut the animal’s spinal cord, but even this can be blundered, leaving the bull conscious but paralysed as he is chained by his horns and dragged out of the arena.8
If the crowd is happy with the matador, the bull’s ears and tail are cut off and presented as a trophy. A few minutes later, another bull enters the arena and the sadistic cycle starts again.
It is a very cowardly event. The matador has the choice to be there – the bull does not. From the moment he enters the ring from the dark alleyway where he is kept, the bull doesn’t stand a chance. He may be weakened by beatings with sandbags, have the muscles in his neck cut in order to prevent him from lifting his head up all the way, be debilitated with laxatives, have his horns shaved or have petroleum jelly rubbed into his eyes in order to alter his ability to judge distance.
Opposition to Bullfighting Opposition to bullfighting is mounting both in Spain and elsewhere. In April 2004, the Barcelona City Council declared Barcelona an anti-bullfighting city in an effort to eventually ban this primitive blood sport. Since then, 38 other Catalan municipalities have followed suit and the Catalonian Parliament has debated a bill that would expand existing cruelty-to-animals laws to include bullfighting. According to a Gallup survey in October 2006, 72 per cent of Spaniards show no interest in bullfights, up from 54 per cent in the ’80s. If Spain wants to increase tourism and be a progressive country, it needs to catch up with the times and stop killing animals for entertainment.
Pamplona Bull Run (San Fermin)
History of the Pamplona Bull Run
The festival of San Fermin, or the Pamplona bull running as it's more commonly known outside Spain officially begins at midday on 6th July every year with the 'chupinazo' which takes place on the balcony of the Casa Consistorial in Pamplona. Thousands of people congregate in the square awaiting the mayor's official announcement that the fiestas have begun, a rocket is launched and the partying begins.
The history of the bullrunning in Pamplona is not clear. There is evidence of the festival from as far back as the 13th century when it seems the events took place in October as this coincided with the festival of San Fermin on October 10th. It seems that the modern day celebration has evolved from this as well as individual commercial and bullfighting fiestas which can be traced back to the 14th century.
Over many years the mainly religious festival of San Fermin was diluted by music, dancing, bullfights and markets such that the Pamplona Council proposed that the whole event be moved to July 7th when the weather is far more conducive to such a celebration. To this day San Fermin remains a fixed date every year with the first bullrun at 8am on July 7th and the last at the same time on July 14th.
The first evidence of foreigners turning up in Pamplona for San Fermin are recorded in chronicles from the 17th and 18th centuries when reference is made to the local clergy being concerned about "the abuse of drink and the permisiveness of young men and women". By now there was plenty music, dancing, drinking, street theatre and bull running as the religious focus of the occasion took a back seat.
By the 19th century all kinds of fairground attractions were making their way to Pamplona including human cannonballs and circus animals. The actual route of the bull run didn't have a double security wall as is the case today so the bulls were able to escape, creating chaos in the streets of Pamplona.
It was thanks to the writing of American writer Ernest Hemingway that San Fermin developed the notoriety of today. The publication of his novel "The Sun Also Rises" in 1926 told the world about the Pamplona bull running festival which attracted people from all over the world to this annual festival. Such is the popularity of the event that overcrowding is a serious problem and if you're planning on staying there then you should book accommodation many months in advance.
The Bull Run
The Pamplona bull run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th July. Runners must be in the running area by 7.30am. The actual run stretches from the corral at Santo Domingo where the bulls are kept, to the bullring where they will fight that same afternoon. The length of the run is 825 metres and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes. The streets through the old town which make up the bull run are walled off so the bulls can't escape. Each day six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks.
The tension builds as the release of the bulls approaches and at 8am on the dot a rocket is fired to confirm that the gate has been opened at the Santo Domingo corral. Runners dressed in white with a red hankerchief around their necks pray to San Fermin then a second rocket announces that the bulls have left. The bulls and the runners then proceed along the route.
Watching the Bull Run
You can stand behind the fences that mark the route of the bullrun but you need to arrive by around 6.30am to get the best spots on the top of the fence directly overlooking the run. Another good spot is in front of the museum on c/ Santo Domingo where there isn't a fence but the best spots here are usually taken before 6am leaving you with a cold two hour wait before the run starts.
A great alternative is to get yourself onto a balcony overlooking the bullrun. You might be lucky enough to meet someone who invites you onto their terrace, alternatively, ask in the tourist information office (c/ Esclava, 1). Your only other options are to go to the bullring and watch the end as the bulls arrive in the arena or to head for a bar and watch the bull run which is shown live every morning on national TV.
Bullfight Tickets
Tickets for the bullfights are sold out well in advance as the arena only holds 12,500 people. Every evening after the day's bullfight some tickets go on sale for the next evening's event at the 'taquillas' at the bull ring. You'll usually find ticket touts operating around the Plaza de Toros during the day and before the bullfight selling at elevated prices.