BULLFIGHTING FOES CONVERGE ON PAMPLONA FOR ‘RUNNING OF THE NUDES’

PETA Hopes ‘Human Race’ Will Expose, End Cruelty Behind Bull Run

For Immediate Release:
July 1, 2005

Contact:
Brandi Valladolid 757-622-7382   

Pamplona, Spain — With opposition to the annual "Running of the Bulls" and the ensuing killing of the bulls in bullfights mounting throughout Spain and around the world, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) fourth annual "Running of the Nudes" is building for its biggest-ever showing in Pamplona on July 5, two days before the bull run. Leading the charge against animal abuse will be an estimated 600 people, most of them wearing nothing but costume bullhorns and red scarves—more than twice the number of people who participated in last year’s event, which grabbed headlines around the world. The runners’ goal is to show that there is a win-win alternative to an old-fashioned and cruel spectacle in which panicked animals are stampeded through town, only to end up tormented and slaughtered in the bullring.

PETA wants Pamplona to embrace a new tradition—the festive, naked "Human Race"—and to stop abusing bulls, who are terrified by the ordeal and often suffer serious injuries as they slip and fall in their flight down cobbled streets. After the Barcelona City Council declared Barcelona an anti-bullfighting city in April 2004 in an effort to eventually ban this primitive blood sport—seen by many as a shameful part of Spain’s past and not reflective of a progressive European country—other Spanish towns, including Torello, Calldetenes, and Olot, followed suit.

PETA’s festive event promotes a humane alternative to the cruel Running of the Bulls, where the bulls are riled into a frenzy prior to the run, using electric prods and sharp sticks, and tortured and slaughtered in the bullring afterwards, every single day during the weeklong event. In bullfights, bulls are often debilitated with tranquilizers or beatings and blinded with petroleum jelly rubbed into their eyes. According to The New York Times, as many as 90 percent 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 President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Tourists flocking to Pamplona are looking for a thrill, and our Running of the Nudes aims to give them just that—without harming a hair on a bull’s back."

For more information and to view footage of last year’s Running of the Nudes, please visit RunningOfTheNudes.com.