Running of the bulls rituals occur across Spain, although the festival of Sanfermines in Pamplona remains the best-known.
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The festival is celebrated in the region of Navarra, every year from the 6th to the 14th of July.
Wearing little more than “bull horns” and holding signs which read, “Pamplona: Bloodbath for Bulls”, 29-year-old Jacqueline Joyce from Tourmakeady, County Mayo, joined 75 protesters outside Pamplona’s main square today.
The Pamplona San Fermin Festival is a Spanish tradition that includes bull running and bull fighting.
Joyce called on Spanish authorities to end the annual summer festival which sees bulls let loose on a sectioned off set of streets while spectators run in front of the animals.
Francisco Vasquez Neira is the president of AnimaNaturalis, and he said: “Thanks to political changes in the city and the country, we think that is it possible to ban bullfights as a first step and to later ban the running of the bulls itself”, ABC reports.
The first bull run, which traditionally draws the largest number of participants, is on Thursday.
A “recortador” jumps over a bull during a contest at Pamplona’s bullring during the San Fermin festival, Spain, July 11, 2015.
It famously took on a storied quality in the hands of fan Ernest Hemingway whose 1926 book The Sun Also Rises tracks a group of friends pulled apart by the drink, madness and lust of the partying town during the event.
The bulls are far less fortunate – after their morning run they are killed in afternoon bullfights.
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Ten people, including four Americans, were gored in last year’s festival.
