Pamplona's Running of the Bulls 2000
July 8, 2000 -- Twenty-one people were injured — two critically — during the second day of the running of the bulls in the narrow streets of Pamplona, Spain.
A 40-year-old American man from Denver was gored in thebuttocks and required surgery, and a 23-year-old Canadian whowas trampled suffered a head injury, requiring a trip to thehospital, emergency workers said. No names were available.
Two others were taken to hospital for lesser injuries, andthe rest were treated on the spot.
Started Friday
The annual running of the bulls got under way Friday with several minor injuries — but no gorings. The run, part of the Spanish city’s annual eight-day orgy of wine and bravado that is the San Fermín Festival, attracts up to a half million visitors, many of them spending the night on the streets singing, dancing and drinking ahead of the morning run.
The animals set off each day on a half-mile stampede, from the corral where the bulls are kept to the outdoor arena where they will be killed by matadors later in the day.
Several thousand people took part in Friday’s run, mostly men wearing white pants and a red sash around their waist. This is in tribute to the first runners centuries ago: butchers in blood stained work clothes.
Two Spaniards were hospitalized on Friday, one with a bump on the head and the other with a hurt elbow, after falling during the harrowing early morning dash through the cobblestone streets of Pamplona’s old quarter. Twenty others were treated on the scene for bumps and scratches, but no one was gored in the first of eight runs.
And the bulls aren’t the only threat. Runners jostle and sometimes trample each other to stay ahead of three-quarters of a ton of fury.
Overcrowding has made the runs extremely dangerous. So many people showed up this year that police prevented some from running, keeping them behind wooden barriers set up to protect throngs of spectators.
A Half-Ton of Bull
The six bulls, weighing between 1,000 and 1,300 pounds, slipped and tumbled frequently as they ran with six bell-tinkling steers that are supposed to serve as guides.
A retired police officer from Arizona who was among the courageous Friday morning said his sprint with the bulls was “the biggest rush” he’s ever had.
Many prepare for the run with “liquid courage”: 41 people required medical attention overnight for intoxication or falls suffered while drunk, emergency workers said.
Television commentators called it one of the most injury-free bull runs in recent memory.
“It was a very clean running,” an emergency worker said.
Since record keeping began in 1924, 13 runners have been killed and more than 200 injured by the bulls. The last fatality was an American in 1995.
One veteran said, “This not a game.”
Criticized for Animal Cruelty
In addition to a half million tourists, international animal rights activists have turned out in recent years to denounce the event as cruel. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has mounted a campaign to try to persuade foreigners to boycott the festival, during which more than 50 bulls will be killed in afternoon bullfights.
“Many tourists are just not aware of the cruelty that goes on in bullfighting or that the bulls that run in the morning are killed later.” said Toni Vermelli, PETA’s campaign coordinator.
The running of the bulls dates back to 1591, when its purpose was purely practical — to move the bulls to the arena.
But in the 17th century a handful of daring onlookers ran the gantlet in front of the half-ton beasts for the first time, launching a tradition that has endured into the present day.
The spectacle was made internationally famous by Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.