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Bull run: the bloody festival in Pamplona

July 6, 2015

The controversial "San Fermin" festival has kicked off in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona. For eight days bulls are driven through the old town, inevitably leading to serious injuries each year.

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San Fermin Festival in Spanien
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

At midday the opening firecracker was launched from the balcony of the town hall in front of tens of thousands of enthusiastic revelers. Featuring some of the world's biggest bulls - at over 600 kilograms - the animals will be ushered through the old city streets of Pamplona on Tuesday, herded with electric batons and sharp sticks. Hundreds of people run in front of the agitated animals - an often ill-considered test of courage particularly popular with tourists from Europe, the US and Australia. Last year a total of 530 people were hospitalized, two with life-threatening injuries. Since 1924 there have been 15 deaths, the most recent in 2009.

The annual celebrations have taken place since 1591, in honor of the city's first bishop and patron saint San Fermin. For the animals, however, the festival inevitably comes to a grizzly end. At the conclusion of each race the frantic animals are driven into a bull ring and killed by professional bull fighters.

Animal rights activists have long called for an end to the bloody tradition. Around 100 semi-naked animal rights activists from the animal protection organization PETA doused themselves in fake blood on Saturday in protest, brandishing signs that read "Pamplona's streets are stained with Bull's blood" in several languages.