Sir, – The Spanish media outlets have been full of outrage over a frightening spate of sexual assaults on women in Pamplona during the annual running of the bulls last week.
The prevailing sentiment in the editorials and opinion columns is that the “cultural” event was tainted and overshadowed by the outbreak of violence and depravity, and that the incidents could impair the city’s image.
Perhaps the nature of the festival in question might provide a clue as to what happened.
The annual bull-run involves the deliberate mental and physical torture of the bulls that are forced to run in front of jeering sightseers, prior to being taken to a public arena to be further humiliated and killed.
In the ring, each bull is stabbed repeatedly with razor-sharp lances and darts before a swaggering matador plunges a sword into its bleeding, pain-racked body.
The Pamplona festival of terror and torture is an affront to humanity, a relic of the Dark Ages that should have been banned centuries ago.
Should we really be so shocked, or even surprised, that such an event would attract the wrong kind of people? – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan, Co Kilkenny.