American Gored In Pamplona Bull Run
Posted on July 9, 2008
Filed Under Events, International, News, Travel | Comments Off on American Gored In Pamplona Bull Run
Every July, there’s a story in the media describing how some drunken fool got trampled or gored while running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. This week, an American male tourist got gored in the buttocks and had to run to surgery. Yes, it’s no fun to get stomped or skewered on vacation, but these men at least have a choice. The bulls, on the other hand, are prodded into running, panicked, through a gauntlet of crazy, screaming people who get a kick out of taking a swing at them as they go hurtling by. You can’t blame the bulls for trampling and goring. I’d be freaked out too! Many bulls are injured during the run when they fall on the pavement or crash into walls. And they all are tortured and killed with swords by matadors in the bullfighting ring later that evening. Most tourists have no idea that the bulls stampeded through the streets during the day are slaughtered in the ring at night.
Last year, women in Pamplona, demanded their own version of the run complete with cows instead of bulls. Women have been allowed to take part in the San Fermin bull-running for some years but they still represent a tiny minority. Why would anyone want to do this anyway?
Since 2002, people have come together from all over the world to protest the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. According to a Gallup poll conducted in October 2006, 72 percent of Spaniards show no interest in bullfights – up from 54 percent in the 1980s. It is tourists who are keeping this cruel tradition alive.
