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.

© Matt Goldsmith

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.

Posted by Karin Bennett

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?

Posted by Karin Bennett