Video: Activist Leaps Into Pamplona Bullring to Protest Cruel, Barbaric Bullfights
PETA U.K. Captures Heart-Stopping Moment in Which ‘Vegan Strike Group’ Member Shields Bull From Matador’s Savage Knife Attack
For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2017
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
PETA U.K. captured video footage of the moment that a member of Vegan Strike Group jumped into a Pamplona bullring to shield a bull who lay bleeding and dying from knife wounds. Before being hauled away by officials, the man, who had the message “Basta Corrida” (“Stop Bullfights”) painted on his body, held up a sign proclaiming, “Bullfighting Is Torture.” The action took place during the city’s infamous San Fermín festival—during which 54 bulls are chased down the slippery cobblestone streets before being beaten, speared, and stabbed to death in the bullring—and is part of a wider campaign by the group to stop animals from being abused and killed for human entertainment.
Video footage is available here. Photos are available here, here, here, and here.
“The bull was terrified and in excruciating pain—we couldn’t leave him to die alone,” says Peter Janssen of Vegan Strike Group. “We represent the majority of people around the world, who are calling for an end to this cruel event.”
“Bullfighting is an abusive, archaic spectacle that has no place in a civilized society,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA commends these brave protesters for reminding spectators that tormenting and killing animals for so-called ‘entertainment’ is contemptible.”
More than 100 Spanish towns and cities have banned bullfighting. But in Pamplona, bulls are tormented with electric prods and sharp sticks before slipping and sliding along the narrow streets, pursued by hundreds of thrill seekers. In the bullring, as many as eight men taunt, beat, and stab a single bull with daggers and harpoon-like banderillas until he becomes weakened from blood loss. Then, the matador stabs the exhausted animal with a sword in an attempt to sever his spinal cord.
For more information about animals used for entertainment, please visit PETA.org or Vegan Strike Group’s Facebook page.
