The impossible happened—for a split second anyway. I momentarily laughed during a bullfight—or rather, during a matador's wardrobe malfunction, which drew plenty of guffaws and catcalls from the audience. Watch as Alvaro Marin runs, bare-bottomed, from a bull—and then fashions an adult diaper out of a piece of cloth. 

Of course, just like the tormented bull, the laughter was short-lived: Marin returned to the ring to slaughter the animal. Any shame that Alvaro Marin felt about his impromptu reveal was misdirected. As another Alvaro—the bullfighter-turned-vegetarian animal defender—notes, the continued killing of bulls in bullfights should bring shame and sorrow. Until these bloody slaughters are banned, they should also bring your protests. 

Written by Karin Bennett

Forty spectators were hurt when a terrified, frantic, and injured bull leapt for his life from a Spanish bullfighting arena and ran through the stands trying to escape. We regret that there is no shame in Navarra: The bull was recaptured and killed.

Some media outlets have spun this story as if the bull were the aggressor, but what else would he have tried to do but flee when crowds of screaming people were taunting him? Unlike a typical bullfight in which bulls are repeatedly stabbed until they die in a pool of blood, in this particular twisted event, a bull is subjected to constant goading in multiple events until he eventually ends up in a typical—and deadly—bullfight.

Bullfighting is on the way out. Last month, Spain's Catalan parliament voted to ban bullfighting in response to public demand. Add your voice by asking Spain's prime minister to ban this hideously cruel blood sport throughout the country.

Thanks to Leo for sending this story our way.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

Before the drunken partiers filled Pamplona's streets today to kick off the annual Running of the Bulls tormenting of bulls, scores of animal defenders from PETA U.K. and the Spanish animal rights group AnimaNaturalis creatively banded together to put the bulls' perspective in the picture.

Photo by Matt Goldsmith for PETA UK

During this annual celebration of torture, bulls are jabbed with prods and sharp sticks to whip them into a frenzy. Then the panicking animals are stampeded through crowds of people, slipping and stumbling on the wine-soaked cobblestone streets. The exhausted bulls are later prodded into the bullring, where they are stabbed to death.

The majority of the Spanish population no longer supports this cruelty. In 2004, the Barcelona City Council declared Barcelona an anti-bullfighting city, and 40 other Spanish towns have followed suit. State-run Spanish television has also stopped televising the violence.

Let's call the Running of the Bulls what it really is—sickening cruelty to animals—and call on Pamplona's mayor to ban it.

Written by Karin Bennett

Given the escalating violence among young people, it's impossible to understand how anyone can cheer for 12-year-old bullfighter Michel Lagravere, who boasts that he has stabbed seven bulls to death. It's also disturbing that people continue to egg the young man on even after he was recently tossed around by a bull in a Mexican bullfight:

The misguided child walked away with only minor injuries, but that bull's days are still numbered. Bulls don't stand a chance in the arena—especially not when even a 12-year-old is permitted to torture them to death.

Did you know that bulls are physically harmed and provoked before they are let into the arena? They are beaten and sometimes have their horns shaved. Then, surrounded by the screaming crowd, the confused bulls will naturally fight for their lives as men on horses run them in circles and stab them with knives until the animals are dizzy and weakened from blood loss. Finally, the matador comes in for the killing stab when the exhausted bull is already near death.

Please contact Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhán to politely voice your objection to bullfighting and to tell him that you won't be vacationing in Mexico until bullfights are banned for good.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

When morning's chill is frigid and frightful, my husband and I can get into some pretty intense debates about whose turn it is to walk Charlie and Lucy. OK, I'm exaggerating: We just play a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors—and usually wind up walking them together.

But in Spain's Catalonia region, a heated battle is growing over a proposed bill to ban bullfighting, initiated by a citizens' lobbying group that opposes the hideous "sport." Of course, other politicians want to keep the bloody "tradition" alive.

stopbullfighting / CC

We're happy to report that the bill just passed a secret vote in the regional parliament (yay!). According to news reports, it was such a sensitive issue that some legislators actually used newspaper to cover their hands when they voted. Secret voting is rare in the Catalan legislature—so the cruelty behind bullfighting really hit home for the representatives who voted their conscience in defiance of tradition.

But the vote was close (67-59), and the bill still has a long way to go: Debates are sure to intensify before the final vote, which is several months away. If the bill passes, Catalonia will be the second region in Spain to outlaw bullfighting—the Canary Islands did it way back in 1991.

Of course, there's no question that my husband and I will call a truce long enough to sign this petition to end the Running of the Bulls. Won't you do the same?

Written by Karin Bennett

Check out the gaggle of nearly naked PETA members who converged on the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. yesterday in a warm up for PETA UK’s sixth annual Running of the Nudes in Pamplona, Spain, to protest the cruelty of the Running of the Bulls. OK, so I guess this demo is more like the Running of the Almost Nudes since they were all rocking underwear, but still . . .

Of course in the real Running of the Nudes, most of those participants roll buck naked, save for running shoes and the red scarves that are traditionally worn during the bull run. And lots of body hair. Come on, it is in Europe after all.

Here’s the video from last year’s event.

Attention: Only watch this video if you are over 18 and if seeing naked people protesting cruelty to animals is legal where you live (the lawyers made me say that).

Click here if you want to get in on this year’s run in July.