Pathetic Pamplona: Why the running of the bulls makes me sick to my stomach

LET’S call this “festival” what it is: A pathetic orgy of animal torture, cruelty and murder paraded as tradition for tourist dollars.

OPINION

HE stands, sides heaving, hide a steaming lather of fear-soaked sweat, body streaming with blood.

Maddened and blinded with pain and fear, the bull lurches around a stadium before a baying crowd.

Through a sheen of pain and near-exhaustion, he lowers his head and lumbers towards his tormentor, driven by an instinct too primitive and strong to allow him anything else.

It’s an instinct to preserve his life and fight. And it’s a battle he cannot win.

We all know how this ends.

If the bull does manage to get a horn into and gore or trample his tormentor, the respite will be only brief. No matter how many he takes out, another matador or executioner will rise, and eventually, tortuously take his life.

That is the absolute and sickening premise of the annual eight-day Spanish festival of torture in Pamplona which is the running of the bulls.

And if you think there’s anything honourable or courageous about being part of it, I’d suggest you’re also the type of person who enjoys drowning kittens.

Chasing a group of terrified, maddened and confused animals down a narrow, cobblestoned street to their death doesn’t take guts or gumption. It’s a cowardly act based on bulls**t.

Bloodbath: Blood and sweat flow freely from the bull as the torment continues at the hands of Spanish bullfighter Gonzalo Caballero on day two of the festival. Picture: AP/Alvaro Barrientos)

It takes a very special brand of cruelty, wilful blindness to an animal’s pain, denial and a fair dose of idiocy to think this is OK.

There are no heroes here. This isn’t something you can proudly tell the kids when they’re older. It’s as pathetic as it is abhorrent.

That’s the reality of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona which kicked off last weekend.

Goaded, and weakening: Another lance is shoved into the bull as his fight ebbs away. Picture: AP/Alvaro Barrientos)

It’s an eight-day celebration of murder, torture and torment of animals staged on a background of alcohol-soaked partying in a town mobbed by tourists claiming what it’s doing is fine because … tradition.

It’s a reality which daily sees a group of bulls “encouraged" — by cattle prod, sticks, kicks, shouts and blows — onto a cobbled street amid a jeering, drunk crowd which gets its kicks running alongside them.

“How dangerous”, the two legged-participants marvel as for 850 panicked metres the bulls slip, stumble and blindly cannon into walls and humans. Shaking their heads in terror, the bulls may gore those around them as they try to flee.

ARENA OF DEATH

It ends in the town’s bullring with a fight to the death, as matadors lauded for their “skills” torment, torture, stab and spear the already exhausted and weakened animals to their death.

First, picadors shove metal lances from the safety of horseback into the bull’s back to start the blood loss.

The fact the horse has to be blindfolded to carry out this operation shows the sheer stupidity of taking on a maddened, 600kg creature.

Act two sees more men on foot plunge more sharp sticks into the beast, goading him, making him charge in circles as the blood red mist of exhaustion sets in.

Then it’s the matador’s turn to get some final charges out of the stricken beast.

At some point the bull will die of blood loss, drown in its blood, or be killed by a matador’s sword. If that fails, an executioner will come into the bullring and end it with a knife.

It won’t be merciful, just a protracted end to a bloody torture.

And then they’ll drag the bleeding carcass out of the arena and send in the next one.

It’s sick. And it needs to stop.

There’s nothing courageous about this spectacle of cruelty.

There’s nothing to aspire to in an “athlete” who squares off against an already exhausted animal who has basically brought a knife to a gunfight, and then had that snatched away as well.

It’s reprehensible. To those who argue “it’s tradition”, I recommend a long walk off a very short pier.

The “party” ends in death: A Cebada Gago's bull is pulled out of the arena at the end of the bullfight. Picture: AP/Alvaro Barrientos

You want entertainment? Subscribe to Netflix.

Want a physical contest? Strap on some gloves and get in the boxing ring.

Want to feel like a rock star? Learn to bloody sing.

Want to test yourself? How about showing a bit of moral fortitude and doing it on a level playing field without harming something else?

THE TOLL THIS YEAR.

Some, but not enough, view the San Fermin festival for exactly what it is: bloodshed and carnage dressed up as entertainment.

But supporters say the bull is a key part of the San Fermin tradition that needs to be preserved.

Herein lies a bitter irony: Bullfights are protected under Spain’s constitution as part of the country’s cultural heritage. The bulls are not.

Prodding, poking and goading them through the streets and into a bullring to be killed in a “corridas” has been happening for 700 years, supporters argue.

Which is approximately 699 years and 364 days too many.

On day two of this year’s “festival” reporters noted the bulls were “reluctant to exit their pen and begin the race that leads to Pamplona’s bullring”.

No s**t?

Sadly, from where I sit, that day only two people were injured during the street race. Down from five on day one. On day three, the human injury toll was four.

What’s brave about this? Participants fall next to Cebada Gago fighting bulls on the third day of the San Fermin bull run festival in Pamplona. Picture: AFP/Ander Gillena

Cowering coward: A runner tries to protect himself after falling during the bull run. Picture: AFP/Jose Jordan

There have been updates on the conditions of those hospitalised in the days before.

Several had undergone surgery, hopefully to transplant a brain and some empathy into their bodies. Since 1910, 16 runners have died — the last one in 2009.

The report didn’t mention the death toll of the bulls.

Shamefully, it never does.

TORTURE AND TOURISM

Watching a bull being jabbed and taunted to death with barbed sticks by a matador has long time been a proven cash cow for Pamplona.

It’s a tradition which pays dividends in blood money of cold, hard tourism dollars.

Despite studies showing more than three-quarters of Spaniards disapprove of bullfighting, the festival remains a tourism bonanza, annually drawing one million visitors to Pamplona.

The city’s left-wing mayor, Joseba Asiron, raised eyebrows ahead of this year’s festival by questioning the future of the bullfights at its core.

“I don’t envision a San Fermin festival without the bull runs, but I do see them happening one day without the corridas (bullfights),” Asiron said.

Blood money: Tourists and revellers pack the bullring before the bloodshed begins. Picture: AFP/Jose Jordan

He was howled down by the Toro de Lidia foundation, which groups bull-related businesses and aficionados and local supporters.

“Once you open that door, there is no way back to save the running of the bulls without having them sacrificed in the bullring,” said Juan Cuesta, a 55-year-old Pamplona resident.

“Right now, I don’t see the majority of people in Pamplona ready to give up on the DNA of San Fermin.”

Sadly, when you have unenlightened morons running like Inigo Plaza, that DNA seemingly runs lamentably strong.

”To have an animal weighing 600 kilos behind you and with all these people in the streets ... it’s an indescribable feeling of adrenaline and excitement,” he gushed.

He forgot to add barbaric, cruel and outdated.

Sickening: Bullfighter Octavio Chacon is carried by assistants at the end of the bullfight. Picture: AP/Alvaro Barrientos