RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Hello everybody and welcome to Pamplona Spain 2008.

My name is Michael Murphy and I live on Estafeta(the main stree of the daily bullrun)and if you need to know anything about Pamplona just give me a call : +34 638206664 or email me if you prefer: info@sanfermintravelcentral.com

Viva San Fermin

Michael
www.sanfermintravelcentral.com

Hemingway brought this event to the attention of the English speaking world in The Sun Also Rises in the 1920's. If you have English speakers, you get busybodies clucking their tongues and condemning other cultures and events. Leave them alone, sez I.

Bullfighting is gradually dying in Spain, as soccer is slowing taking over. The dictator, Primo de Rivera, in the 1920's started this process by building all those big soccer stadiums. Too bad. I much prefer bull-fighting over soccer.

a great festival with lots of thrill even if you are up in the valconies watching

so a few dozen humans die or get hurt in the running of the bulls big deal, thousands of bulls are killed in Spain alone each year because of tradition and entertainment.the bulls running in the streets during this festival end up in an arena where they are tortured, mutilated and killed.never been to it, never want to.

Animal abuse is not entertainment! More than 40,000 bulls are barbarically slaughtered in rings in Spain each year, according to The New York Times, but most Spaniards would like bullfights sent to the dustbin of history. The Let’s Go City Guides: Barcelona, 2002 reports that “87 percent of Spaniards believe it’s wrong to make animals suffer for public entertainment or celebration. Sixty percent think that Spain has a bad reputation for its treatment of animals. Of those interviewed, 60 percent had not been to a single bullfight in the past decade, and more than 80 percent had not been even once in the past year.” Tourists who are unaware of the cruelty keep bullfights alive, even though “the average tourist leaves his first bullfight after only two of six bulls have been killed,” says the guide. Many young Spaniards and Mexicans think of this crude sport as an embarrassing old occupation of their grandfathers’ impoverished times. Bullfighting is not about “culture.” It is a cruel bloodsport in which the bulls don’t stand a chance. According to the Associated Press, a recent study found that 20 percent of bulls are fed laxatives and drugged before they step into the ring. Of 200 bulls, “one in five had been given anti-inflammatory drugs, which mask injuries that could sap the animal’s strength.” The bull’s horns are shaved and petroleum jelly may be smeared in his eyes to cloud his vision. Before the matador even enters the ring, a picador stabs and cuts the muscles in his neck. The Running of the Bulls and the bullfight are defended as “traditions,” but people have always tried to use tradition to justify continuing abuse—e-ven child labor and slavery. Bad traditions should end, just as the Spanish tradition of flinging live goats from towers in the name of saints was recently ended. Portuguese, or so-called “bloodless” bullfights, legal in some states, are not good alternatives, even though the bull is not killed in the ring. Matadors tease and torment the frightened animals, jabbing at them with sticks.

Great for entertainment...it's not really running with the bulls so much as it is running FROM the bulls...if I was drunk enough I'd probably give it a try

Anyone who does not "get it" has never been there to experience the passion and the emotion first-hand. Viva la patria y viva San Fermin!

This is a great world party - it makes Mardi Gras look like a McDonalds play ground....

San Fermines rules!!!

People being chased by really huge, unhappy and frightened animals equipped with horns through ancient narrow streets. I'm sorry, is this a holiday for idiots or what?