Three people were left with bruises after a tense fifth bull race at Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival on Monday.
This was the first festival run this year with gorings. The festival will continue for three more days until Thursday.
According to the regional government, a 25-year old runner from Sunrise in Florida was gored in calf in bullring. Two Spaniards were also gored, one in the bullring and one on street. None of them were in grave condition.
Festival organizers incorrectly stated that the Australian foreigner who wore the ring in an earlier festival were Australian.
Three other runners, all Spaniards were treated for injuries suffered in falls during the race.
Television footage showed a bull repeatedly hitting and butting a runner against wooden barriers at the edge of ring, and then going after another leg.
Scotch Snider was a 50-year old from Austin, Texas. He was one of the thousands who attended the festival, CBS News’ Ian Lee reported.
Snider stated, “Hell yeah, I was afraid man.” “There is a lot fear in my blood, but I feel relieved now and I’m going out to get drunk.”
Don Story, an American teacher, stated that he had one goal while running with bulls.
He said, “We are hoping to do a great job and not be one the dumb foreigners that mess it up.”
The spectacle lasted only three minutes. Hundreds of runners, mostly men ran ahead of six fighting bulls, as they raced through the cobblestone streets. The bullring in Pamplona is where the bulls are killed later in the day.
Six people sustained injuries last week at the bull run’s first edition. These included a American man aged 30 who broke his left arm, and a Spanish girl aged 16 who lost part her finger in the bullring.
Lee reports that animal rights activists claim it is the bulls who are under threat and want to end this tradition.
Chelsea Monroe, senior digital campaign officer at PETA, stated that bulls are repeatedly stabbed for up to 20 minutes until they die.
The Pamplona festival attracts thousands of people. It was featured in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.” Partying is a common part of the Pamplona festival, which follows the adrenaline rush from the morning bull race.
In 2019, eight people were killed in the annual festival, the last before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1910, Pamplona has seen the death of 16 people in its bull runs. The last was in 2009.
