It’s that time of year again. A right of passage? A test of masculinity? How about a demonstration of stupidity. To me it’s alot like tossing an uzi and a clip at an angry drug-dealing kingpin and then seeing how fast you can run away before he gets the clip loaded and starts shooting. Maybe if you can lose yourself in a large group of people, you’ll lessen the chance that you’ll be shot- now that’s bravery :rolleyes:
I found one man’s personal account here, but it still didn’t help me understand why people feel the need to do this. Is it not enough of a challenge in this world to simply stay alive, healthy & deformity/disfunction-free?
I think this is one of the most disgusting things that man does. It is stupid and proves nothing. I also get upset about the animals. They are running on evil energy be it fear or anger or both. I think this is cruel and unusal punishment and any human that gets gorged deserves it.
Lighten up people, they are all just running and nothing more. The bulls run as a herd with a bunch of oxen and they just run and are not dangerous. If one becomes separated from the heard, then it may feel threatened and attack, but as long as it is with the pack it will just stay together.
So they all run down the street, so what? I can see no cruelty of any kind whatsoever. I will also point out that this is maintained in great part by Americans who go there and that the last person killed was an American college student a few years back.
People do this because they are young and like the risk. It may seem foolish to you and me but I live near a university here in DC and almost everything those kids do seems pretty stupid to me. I cannot see the fun in getting drunk and roaming the streets like that… That IMHO is quite a bit more stupid and dangerous than running the bulls and yet they do it every week.
Brigitte Bardot (member of PETA) has appealed to the Pope to condemn bullfighting (not bull running). Good luck to her. In the 16th century the Pope at the time banned bullfights under penalty of excommunication but had to back off when he realized Spaniards were doing it anyway and would probably rather become protestant than give up bullfighting. So good luck to you Ms bardot. http://www.msnbc.com/news/430281.asp
Yeah, I always wondered what those folks had for brains, but as sailor said, there are an awful lot of people doing dumb things, although getting drunk and roaming the streets doesn’t usually end up with injury and death (that is, unless the drunks wander into a drug dealers’ shootout, which is quite possible in D.C. :D) I don’t much care if these guys don’t care about getting gored or trampled, but I do think it’s cruel to the bulls. I haven’t watched it in a long time, but they’re running for a reason - how do they get them going? then with the crowds of screaming on-lookers and the jerks running ahead and all around (and under-hoof), I think the bulls ARE frightened. And bullfighting is barbaric. Jeez, why do men (and some women)
have to prove their machismo by hurting other humans and animals? (Hmmm…I feel a great debate coming on…)
This is far less dangerous than you are led to thinkand in NO way is it cruel to the animals. As I said, this is a herd of bulls and oxen trotting down the street. What’s so cruel about that? If you think this is especially cruel or dumb or dangerous, you are not being objective.
I realize cultural things are difficult to understand but try going to Spain and telling them that Americans are amused but having a mule jump off a tower into a pool of water. They will look at you in amazement and wonder what Americans have for brains.
IIRC the last person who was killed in Pamplona was an American student and it was back in 1995. A disproportionate number of Americans get hurt so you may wonder what Americans have for brains when they can’t stay out of the way of the bulls.
And I can guarantee you the numbers of college students hurt and killed by drunkenness (driving etc) even if you only count the DC area is huge compared to the people hurt in Pamplona running the bulls.
I do not think you can say American kids are any more sensible in the ways they choose to amuse themselves. In fact, I would say American kids as a whole are much more messed up than Spanish kids. I mean nowhere in Europe do you see all this stuff about guns and shootings in schools etc. and the violence that permeates American society. So, if running the bulls is the worst thing they do, I can live with that.
"Daily Mail
Associated Newspapers Ltd.
(Copyright 2000)
THREE teenage killers acted out a sickening scene from the ultra- violent film Reservoir Dogs while they stabbed and kicked a 15-year- old boy to death, a court was told yesterday.
Michael Moss was lured to his death on a playing field where the gang of 16-year- olds set upon him, it was said slashing him with a broken vodka bottle, stamping on his head and punching and kicking him before leaving him to die. The attack lasted for two hours.
And in a chilling echo of the cult Quentin Tarantino film, one of the boys allegedly tried to cut off Michael’s ear with the broken bottle while singing a song. Then one of the gang poured cider into his open wounds copying the film when a killer does the same with petrol."
Sangria:
Yeah, it takes a real hero to face down a frightened, confused animal while holding a sword and, in some cases, a gun, and pretend the animal has a chance to win.
Oh, and there isn’t any such word as “milleniums.” In fact, there isn’t even any such word as “millenniums.” It’s “millennia.”
Waitaminute! I was talking strictly about the running of the bulls and I can see nothing wrong with it. There is absolutely nothing cruel about it. Bullfighting would be another program and I am not going to get into that one just like I would not get into discussing the death penalty.
Just after I posted my earlier post I thought of British soccer fans… so I am not saying that young Europeans are all models of virtue but it does seem to me they are much less troubled than American kids.
The running of the bulls seems quite harmless to me and I think the reaction by some foreigners is just caused by the cultural difference rather than anything objective.
Note that this started strictly a a practical way of taking the herd from point A to point B and it was later that they started fooling around and having fun by running in front of them.
I believe they run the bulls 7 days in the early morning. At the end of the 7 days the people seem to be in such a party mood they want more so in the last ten years or so they have started running in front of the first bus that runs down that street the next day. The authorities have banned this and yet they cannot stop it. Stupid? Yes. funny? Yes. Maybe 100 years from now there will be no bulls, only buses.
My conclusion is that young people are pretty dumb everywhere and most of what they do for fun is pretty stupid. In the grand scheme of things running the bulls is pretty harmless.
