07/03/06 With Running of the Nudes Against Bull Runs and Bull Figts
This year too, Animal Friends invites on the Running of the Nudes in Pamplona
- PETA and AFC Hope Naked Run Will Expose and End Cruelty Behind Bull Run
A bus with 50 activists from Croatia and neighboring countries is on July 3 off to Pamplona, Spain to join more than 1,000 activists from around the world who will run through the streets of Pamplona – most of them wearing nothing more than red scarves and plastic horns – two days before the city's annual Running of the Bulls as part of PETA's fifth annual Running of the Nudes on July 5. Participants of Running of the Nudes want to show that there is a win-win alternative to inciting a stampede amongst panicked animals who are later tormented and slaughtered in bullfights.
PETA's Running of the Nudes has garnered international media attention and nearly doubled in size each year since its inception - more than 600 people representing 30 countries took part last year. PETA supporters worldwide have written to the mayor of Pamplona asking her to embrace a new tradition - the festive, naked Running of the Nudes - and to stop abusing bulls.
Before the bulls run through the streets, electric prods and sharp sticks are typically used to torment the animals into a stampede, during which many sustain serious injuries. In bullfights, bulls are often debilitated with tranquillisers or beatings and are blinded by having petroleum jelly rubbed in their eyes. Matadors and picadors tease and torment the frightened animals, killing them in the end. During the Running of the Bulls, people get hurt too, whilst in arena horses become victims as well.
Spanish opposition to bullfighting is mounting. After the Barcelona City Council voted in April 2004 to ban this primitive blood sport, other towns, including Torello, Calldetenes and Olot, followed suit. According to The New York Times, as many as 90 per cent of tourists who attend bullfights never return after witnessing the animals' suffering.
"Tormenting and butchering animals for entertainment is something straight out of the Dark Ages," says PETA Campaign Coordinator Lauren Bowey. "Unlike the sadistic bull run and bullfights, our 'Running of the Nudes' pleases crowds without harming a hair on a bull's back."
If you are interested to report from the Running of the Nudes in Pamplona, please contact us for all the necessary information. A professional photograph and cameraman is going to Pamplona with the activists, and his video footage and photographs will be available for media reports.