Running are fake bulls animated by citizens who chase young and old with background music and laughter.
The funniest running of the bulls? The one without animals. We are used to associate it with a cruel and bloody event but a small Spanish town in the province of Jaen, Escanuela managed to turn it into one fun show and especially cruelty free. An initiative wanted by the mayor who invited everyone to stop mistreating animals and to show them affection and attention.
The scenario we see in this video looks like that of Feast of San Firmino where, every year in July, six bulls and four oxen are released on the streets of the center. But in Escanuela, as opposed to Pamplona, to run after small and large are large puppets in the shape of a bull animated by the citizens themselves.
The ride here is alone a game between laughter and background music, there is no fear of death or the challenge of man against animal, no one gets hurt because there are no victims or perpetrators. Proof that you do can entertain even without blood.
An original idea that relaunches one barbarian tradition in another light and which becomes a small piece of the great battle that the animal rights movements are carrying out, namely that ofdefinitive abolition of bullfighting and bullfighting throughout Spain.
Also to torrebaja in the autonomous community of Valencia, last year the patronal feast had been animated by a show featuring bulls and cows mounted on a wheel, the event had been hailed as thebeginning of change.
We had already told you about the progress made in some Iberian regions, however the data they're not encouraging, second the National Association of Bullfighting Organizers, the turnover linked to bullfighting shows still remains business: in 2014, in fact, bullfights and encierros fueled the Spanish GDP with more than 3.550 million euro and the number of spectators has gone up by 4,97% compared to 2006, reaching i 6 million.
According to Pacma, the Spanish animal rights party, every have are invested 600 million euros of government funds for bullfights and bullfighting shows. The Spanish factions split. While I toreri talk about political persecution and ideology and announce one battle in the square next October, the number of exponents of the anti-bullfighting movements increases. Then there are those, like the president Mariano Rajoy, since 2013 has been fighting for their survival, not only with the approval of a law in their defense, not only restoring them on television but asking, evenUnesco to recognize the bullfighting heritage of humanity.
To those who reply that bullfighting is a way of making culture we answer with numbers: the Pacma party counts more than 10.000 bulls killed in arenas and the number of dead bullfighters is high but, after all, that of dying gored or chased by oxen is their free choice.
Dominella Trunfio
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Running of the bulls in Pamplona: traditions that die hard
