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Alvaro Barrientos / AP
Revelers gather to mark the end of the San Fermin fiestas, in Pamplona northern Spain, Saturday, July 14. The festival of San Fermin will end at midnight Saturday, with revelers singing ''Pobre de Mi," a song which can be translated as "woe is me."
Susana Vera / Reuters
"Gigantes" (Giants) dance during a farewell ceremony on the last day of San Fermin festival's "Comparsa de gigantes y cabezudos" (Parade of the giants and the big heads) in Pamplona July 14. Enormous puppets accompanied by brass bands parade daily through the city during the nine-day-long festival made popular by U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway.
Pedro Armestrepedro / AFP via Getty Images
Spanish matador Daniel Luque performs a pass with a cape next to a Torrehandilla bull during the last corrida of the San Fermin Festival, on July 14, in the Northern Spanish city of Pamplona. The festival is a symbol of Spanish culture that attracts thousands of tourists to watch the bull runs despite heavy condemnation from animal rights groups.
Eloy Alonso / Reuters
Revellers sleep it off at the Plaza Consistorial on the final day of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona July 14. Hundreds of thousands of tourists come from around the world every year to the San Fermin festival, depicted in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises", to take part in activities including the running of the bulls, an early morning half-mile dash from the corral to the bullring alongside six bulls destined to die in the afternoon's corrida. Sixteen people have died in the bull run since 1925. This is followed by processions of giant traditional figures, concerts, firebulls,
fireworks, and large doses of eating, drinking, dancing and late nights.
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I hope the Bulls kill all the matadors.
"Bullfighting" is really "Bull-killing" where the bulls get tortured for "sport." Substitute wild horses for bulls and you quickly see how repeated stabbing of a horse in front of a cheering crowd is a severe form of animal abuse.
Don't attend bullfights, don't bet on bullfights, don't "run with the bulls" which supports the economy of countries (like Spain) which won't ban barbaric practices, SPEAK OUT!
Hemingway was a fool to glamorize bullfighting, but he never really cared about anyone but himself and money. Read "The Paris Wife" for great insights on the drunk coward who wrote "The Sun Also Rises," forgetting that the sun doesn't rise for all those bulls who are tortured and killed.
Who cares man, there are plenty of bulls to go around, stop trying to paste a huge vagina over tradition.
Too bad these so called fiestas weren't ended permanently.
Lemon Twist: Since there were plenty of them to go around, maybe we should revitalize the killing of Christians by the Romans for sport, purely in "keeping with tradition".
Great idea, Debi! After all, you Christians would gladly advocate the killing of Muslims for sport purely in keeping with "American" tradition. Furthermore, Muslims would gladly advocate the killing of Jews for sport purely in keeping with "Persian" tradition. After all, what goes around must come around, right?
Please spare me. Christians are no less evil than the Romans that persecuted them. And besides, we haven't had ourselves a proper Christian persecution since some guy named Jesus was here last, right? I'm willing to "put the Lord God to the test" so to speak if it means he'll come down here and start GIVING A RAT'S ASS about the planet he created. After all, with the way things are now, you wonder if he even cares that this world deteriorates.
Boy, did this get off topic really quickly. And it became a religious debate too?
Say it ain't so! Not on the Newsvine!
What a dumb-ass comment Debi. I mean equalizing a dumb animal with human beings. People are so damn squeamish and pussified today it's a freakin wonder that they'll even eat vegetables without crying over their dinner because some poor little plant had to lose it's life so that they could eat. Jesus freakin Christ!
Yikes! Yeah, can't believe I fell for that trap. *facepalm*
Sometimes my anger and the stupidity it causes me is amazing.
Wow! It only took, what four comments for it to turn to a religious debate. Sorry, CrimsonCujo, I didn't see a trap. I seen a loss of self control. That's on you. Why don't we try to stay on topic and stop the attacks.
Debi, was responding to "Lemon Twist" I was lol. I wish you all would learn how to read. If your parente didn't teach you this I will." don't speak unless spoken to."
Ya Volt hier commandant!!
Thanks 6dogs. One (yourself) out of six capable of being able to read and then being able to comprehend what they read is telling and pathetic. It's not surprising why this world is in a shambles with no foreseeable hope of improvement. :)
Okay, I apologize for my lack of control. I've been having a problem with it just jumping out at me from nowhere, and when it does do its nasty work, I usually feel terrible about it afterwards.
This is one of the biggest reasons why I don't seek work - I fear this anger (and my inability to control it) becoming a hazard at the workplace. Granted, I DO try, but there's only so much a man of my pathetic caliber can do.
And I want to add this: Generally, advocating death of human beings, regardless of what God they may follow, is general very infuriating to me. Unless given a good reason to warrant their deaths, I generally bite at those who claim violence.
For the cases I've usually expressed this - such as Romney, Cheney, and Zimmerman - generally said individuals have ruined at least one person's life, if not completely destroyed one.
But let's not get into this, shall we? I apologize for my stupid comments. What I said was wrong, and I regret it wholly.
"The Sun also rises," unfortunately for these pictured revellers.
I was there in 1985 and had a blast!! It is a week long party with a whole lot of people that are on the same page, as in party all day and night, go to the bull run in the morning, stay for the bull fights then go back to your hotel room sleep for a few hours, go out and have an early dinner, then hit the bars and get hammered. Also be ready to sleep where ever you find yourself find yourself at the end of the evening because the likelihood of you making it back to your room might be a bit of a challenge. Like the guys sleeping on the street, this is pretty much what it is like the following morning, a bad hangover and a messed up place to sleep. If you get lucky and you meet a girl you might end up having a really great time because now there are two of you looking to get back to a room to sleep and if you do get stuck on the street or a park bench you at least have someone to help you keep warm.
Wow you sound like a mature and sober person....wish I could employ you....
(Being extremely sarcastic)
Some people just want to have fun. Quit tryin' to play God, @!$%#.
Yeah, Jeffrey Dahmer "just wanted to have fun", too.
Too bad he's gone now; look at all the play dates you've missed out on. :(
This barbaric "sport" should be banned.
Goodbye, so long, we hate to see you go...........
My question is what do they do with the bull after it is killed? If its used for food, what's the difference between killing it at a bull fight, or at a meat packing plant?? Just a thought...
Wrenchmaneric: In Bull-killing, the bulls are only slaughtered after a long, tortuous "sport" of repeatedly stabbing it so the bull runs around with horrific knives stuck in its back and neck, bleeding and in tremendous pain.
Practices involved in legal meat packing are not perfect, but they attempt to kill the cow as quickly as possible, often with a stun gun or shot in the head. Beef cow killing is not a sport either.
Wrench about the same as being tortured with knives for hours, terrorized and in agonizing pain.
I mean thats show you want to die isn't it?
Traci....How many times have you ever been stabbed? Oh, none? That's what I thought. So how do YOU know that it is painful? Oh, you don't? Just speculating from your bleeding heart, right? I have been stabbed multiple times, never felt it, and guess what else? At no time afterward was it even sore the least little bit, all the way up until it was all healed up. Amazing huh? Who'd of ever thunk it? People watch too much bs tv!
If you get stabbed a lot, you may be a butt hole.....
I'd say more like MUST be a butt hole...
the only way you can truly understand it. is by going there and being a part of it.....
I lived in Chipiona Spain from 1983 through 1986 and attended a few bullfights and ran with the bulls in Arcos de la Fronteria . I wasn’t a huge fan of the bullfights but it is part of the Spanish tradition and they aren’t going to change their ways because some of us in the US don’t like it nor should they. They will put an end to it when the Spanish population find it unacceptable. The running of the bulls was something else, these are huge animals moving pretty fast and until you have done it there is no way to explain it. As far as the celebration goes it is equal to the good times to be had at Marti Gras which I attended in I believe in 1997. I would highly recommend anyone that has the opportunity to go to Spain to experience the running of the bulls to give it a try. Spain is full of history, culture and tradition and is one of the few countries left that still welcome Americans.
Yeah, well it won't be much longer before the liberal communists will take away all of the fun from, and destroy Spain also. They're on a worldwide crusade you know.
I cannot wait for the "Running of the Right Wing" See we run them down the streets stabbing them over and over as we drunkenly enjoy the spectacle of torture.
See how they like it.
(No I am not condemning all Right Wingers, Only those who find joy in torturing animals like the two or three posted above.)
Okay, now we're in agreement. Stab Romney with a bunch of knives. Oh, and all his traitor friends in Congress - they need to be stabbed too. Bush, Cheney, King, Boehner - they all need to die. In the worst way possible.
And as for the "Running of the Bulls", isn't it usually the humans who are in danger in that particular segment? Getting gored to death is no laughing matter. I wouldn't call it unfair for us though - the bulls do end up going through a lot worse than we do, but it's a two sided argument here.
One last thing: a "Running of the Right Wingers" wouldn't work - it'd have too many casualties. Because y'see, the Right Wingers. They have guns. Y'know, the holy boomsticks of God, meant to pass judgement on all those who aren't pure white soldiers of God... y'know? Guns have range - people ain't smart.
My girlfriend is from Algorta (in the Basque Country) and absolutely abhors bullfighting.
Just because it's "tradition," doesn't make it right. And just because it happens to be in Spain and a part of its history, doesn't mean all Spanish people are behind it.
I like you Crimson Cujo.
Wouldn't I have loved to see the bulls win for once.
If you would watch it you could see them win. In the past I have seen them gore people to death, and the best one was a few yrs ago. One of the bulls stuck one of his horns right up a mans a$$ and picked him up in the air and shook him like a rag doll. It was painful AND fun to watch.
Outstanding, I've also seen a bulls horn go under the guys chin and come out of his mouth. You play with the bulls, you get the horns. However I'm guessing that the bull still ultimately losses.
Midnight and Mark, its a damn shame the bulls didn't gore you two azzholes.
Up yours man, if you even have one. You probably just puke like an old buzzard. LMAO!!!
To MarkM012757, you lived in Spain 26 to 29 years ago, that's more than a generation ago. I've lived here for 19 years, after visiting the country every year since a young child in 1959. I can tell you that the majority of the Spanish population do find bullfighting unacceptable, and for the younger generations it is a big majority. Don't forget a newborn baby when you left Spain in 1986 is now 26 years old, and Spain is a country that has undergone profound social change over the past 25 years. Bullfighting itself has ceased to be reported on in mainstream sports programs and now can only be seen on celebrity gossip TV aimed a middle-aged and elderly housewives. In fact the only way to fill a bullring is to have a program with these celebrity bullfighters and advertise it at that specific female audience. I am very integrated into the local Spanish population and I know no-one who goes to bullfights or has any interest in them, whereas in the 1960s most of the men myself and my parents knew went regularly to the bullring. Fortunately some things change for the better, but in this case msnbc certainly isn't helping.
It is truly refreshing to see these revellers enjoying themselves without the government making things "politically correct". People, enjoy!!!
Hey grandpa, the government is the people, fool.
Rich, man have you been in la la land for awhile? You really believe that bs? Man are you one of the worst cases of brainwashed sheeplism I've ever heard of, or what? The gov IS the people he says. What a freakin joke! LMFAO!!!
Couldn't they have their celebration, including the running of the bulls, without the bullfighting? It seems that torturing the bull before killing should be in direct opposition to the values held by the Saint that they are honoring. DUH!!
St Francis of Assisi would agree
I don't recall anywhere in the Bible where it says to go and torture Gods Creations
What about the ancient tradition of offering them up in sacrifice? Not one bit of difference there.
Read Ernest Hemmingway before commenting on bull fighting, either for or against.
Went every year from 1972 to 1978. Great people, great times. Almost every one should have the chance to experience the world, its cultures and all it has to offer. BUT!!!! for all you simple minded people that have never been outside your home town, quit condemning something you know nothing about. This is Spain's culture. Don't try to take your politically correct bull sh*t attitudes there. Stay home!! the World doesn't need you or your liberal ideology's. Comments like you read on here is why the rest of the world calls US " the Ugly Americans.
GIVE EM HELL BILL!!!!!
But don't tell em to stay home. Maybe they'll leave the country never to return again if the rest of us are that fortunate. Even though I would feel kinda bad for wishing them on the rest of the world, still better them than us. Right on?
the real bull is their economy
...But bull riding, horse racing, dog racing, girls on goats, (NASCAR)...that's just A O.K. here in the USA. Hypocrites! I'm a liberal but I think Spain should do whatever the hell Spain wants!
Next year I will be there. :)
So 16 people have been killed since in the running of the bulls since 1925? That 16 undesirables taken out of the gene pool. Too bad there weren't more. If this is a proud tradition of the Spanish people, I choose not to ever visit that country and spend my tourist dollars there.
Just like Bill said in a previous comment. They don't need or want you there with your politically correct liberal communist ideologies.
saw a bullfight back in the 80's can't say i liked it much .but then again who are we to judge, we slaughter millions of babies every year.and you can see how much we respect we have for human life just ask the good dr.mary anne.
Bull fights, running around in white pants, whats not to like. I guess you could say its cruel to kill the bull but in a bull fight, the bull has got a chance to deliver some pay back. In slaughter houses in the USA they gas the cows with Co2 and they pass out then a guy cuts their throats. They are dead and don't even know it. But in the arena, the bull can go out in a blaze of glory fighting for his life. Honestly, the only people that can complain are the ones that have never eaten beef or wore a leather jacket (that includes assless leather chaps).
Torturing animals is inhumane and should be condemned by all of society. To intentionally cause pain and suffering and make a "sport" out of it, and invite thousands to cheer is barbaric. We don't put people in enclosures with hungry lions and tigers anymore do we? Spain needs to be censored for this.
And shame to all those who support and attend. Every person inflicting the suffering on the bull should in the end suffer the same fate as well as those in the stands cheering the suffering on. This is not humane and this is not necessary for "entertainment" in today's world. Culture my ass. It's just an excuse for a few people to make some money at the expense of the animal.
My friend went years ago and had a great time. I would love to see Spain. I would love to see the running of the bulls but not be down there in the crowd. At my age if I tried running I think I would up the number from 16 to 17. :-(
these bulls live the life of kings while they are growing up. a little torture and death with a chance for fighting for my life for a good life ill take that any day instead of being corralled in mine and others filth everyday then have my throat slit with no chance of survival like they do in giant farms.