No bull: animal rights group to stage 'running of the nudes' (PETA in Pamplona)

Yahoo! News/AFP ^ | 3/23/05 | Yahoo! News/AFP

[TFFKAMM]

MADRID (AFP) - The annual "running of the bulls" in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona could get some serious competition this year, in the form of a rival run by naked humans protesting cruelty to animals.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group, which has protested against the event in the past, even announced that it was asking the town authorities to replace the traditional bull-chase with its "running of the nudes."

The nine-day San Fermin festival, due to start on July 6, traditionally involves hundreds of runners, including many tourists, trying to outrace a herd of bulls, who chase them throught the town's narrow streets in a tradition that goes back centuries.

But PETA, which last year unleashed several protesters wearing nothing but fake horns and sandals into the streets of Pamplona, said it wants to turn the 'Running of the Nudes' into the official event this year to protest cruelty against animals.

The group is also concerned about last year's outbreak of blue tongue disease, a virus which forced restrictions on livestock movements in southern regions of Spain.

"In light of the outbreak of blue tongue disease and the negative press reports of the disease... we have asked the mayor to make PETA's Running of the Nudes' the official event this year, PETA's campaigns coordinator Yvonne Taylor told AFP.

A spokeswoman for Pamplona mayor Yolanda Barcina Angulo would not comment on PETA's plans, but said that: "as far as we know the bull-running will go ahead as usual" in the absence of advice to the contrary following the blue tongue outbreak.

"People are free to express their own opinion. But the criticism only comes from Britons and Americans, not Spaniards," she sniffed.

PETA tried a celebrity approach last year, with Chrissie Hynde (news), singer with rock group The Pretenders, urging an end to the "medieval" practice of "tormenting and slaughtering" the bulls, who last year gored 16 race participants.

Amid the controversy the organisers promise only that "the running of the bulls is an unforgettable experience for the spectator and above all for anyone who runs ahead of the bulls.

"It's a spectacle defined by risk and one's physical capacity."

The event has resulted in the deaths of 14 spectators, and of an unknown number of bulls, since records began in 1911.

[highlander_UW]

Will they gore the bystanders, or simply gross them out?

[TFFKAMM]

Hundreds of animal rights activists rallying in Pamplona in 2004 in a PETA-called protest against traditional bull fighting and bull run that are part of the nine-day San Fermin festival(AFP/File/Rafa Rivas)

[RichInOC]

Better yet, why not do both at the same time and give the bulls some fresh meat to aim at?

[Puckster]

May they all be steers, or steersesses, before they finish running.

[isom35]

will pamela anderson be among them?

[MacDorcha]

Wouldn't it be hillarious if the PETA guys ran straight into the arena?

Ole! ::skewer::

[libs_kma]

Nothing comes outta Spain but steers and queers!

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

A big part of the running of the bulls is the drunks carrying Botas filled with cheap red wine.
Instead of aiming at the mouth of people around them, they will have many more targets.

[spetznaz]

The thing that most concerns me about these PETA types is that they have a tendency of doing things in the nude (eg their naked protests over furcoats), YET they just do not look nice naked. Now, as a red blooded male, i would probably be more apt to consider PETA's various rants if they would at least have gorgeous people strip. But no ......they have to go with hairy-armpitted baba-yagas who seem to have escaped from some Siberian Ashram!

Geez! I get hairballs everytime i see a PETA member sans clothes.

[Redcloak]

What is it about Moonbats that compels them to think that removing their clothing is a political statement?!

I know... The corollary is "Why are nudists always of the fat and ugly variety?".

[Triggerhippie]

Sounds like the place to be with a paintball gun!

[bad company]

Dear Spain; We'll forgive you your cowardice if you just keep these bozos.

[angelanddevil2]

"they have to go with hairy-armpitted baba-yagas who seem to have escaped from some Siberian Ashram"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I'm glad I'm not a PETA one!. I'm gorgeous!.

[injin]

PETA-files

[Route101]

Combine the two ...Have the bulls chase the nudes through town.....Watching all those nudies haul ass in their sandals should be worth a few jugs of wine......

[this_ol_patriot]

Did you notice the lack of body hair on those guys, no meat no hair?
You could make a rug out of my chest hairs.

On the other hand maybe it's just an EUro-peon thing.

[horse_doc]

When I was in Pamplona, I saw an inebriated guy strip naked, and dive head-first off of a tall stature into the crowd below. Nobody batted an eye.

Trust me - most people are so drunk in Pamplona that they don't even notice the bulls, much less a few more naked Eurotrash.

[JoeGar]

Running of the Cows?

[American in Israel]

What is it about evil people that they want to parade around naked? If it is such cruelty to animals, why the heck are they doing it voluntarily? Does this make sense to someone, or to you have to do mass quantitys of drugs first?