A Spanish regional government has revealed that a tense bull run at Pamplona’s San Fermín Festival has left three people injured.
As reported by the New York Post, a 25-year-old man from Sunrise, Florida, and two 29-year-old Spanish men, sustained injuries via goring during the fifth bull run at the festival on Monday (July 11).
According to the outlet, the American man - only identified by local officials by the initials M.T - suffered the awful injury from inside the bullring after one of the bulls ensnared several runners against a fence.
The Navarra regional government said that both Spaniards were also gored, one in the knee and one in the groin, and three other runners suffered injuries during the event.
The festival has long been deemed controversial and has seen 16 deaths since 1910. It made its return this year following a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
Per People, outlets said the goring incidents are the first to emerge at this year's festival.
According to ABC News, the bull run lasted just over three minutes as hundreds of runners ran ahead and alongside six fighting bulls as they charged through the northern city.
The run concluded at Pamplona’s bullring, where later in the day the bulls were killed by professional bullfighters, in what animal rights advocates consider a horrible practice.
As they have in previous years, animal rights activists protested in Pamplona earlier this month, according to the Washington Post. However, the protests do little as the city normally sees tens of thousands of visitors come to the festival.
Other animal rights organizations including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), also oppose the act of bullfighting.
Chelsea Monroe, PETA senior digital campaign officer, told the post: "Bullfighting is the long ritualized execution of bulls and many tourists who come to the bull-runs don't actually realize that the same bulls they're running down a couple of streets with are later killed in the bullring that day."
"They're stabbed over and over again for 20 minutes until they're dead," said Monroe. "We want the tourists to know that their money is supporting this really cruel industry."
Jana Uritz of AnimalNaturalis also shared a statement in the same sentiment, saying: "The debate over the future of bullfighting in Spain has never been so alive and the authorities must take a clear stance."
"We demand the necessary courage from them to say whether they favor animal torture or, on the contrary, are ready to prohibit such barbarities," she added.
Despite opposition, bullfighting is still extremely popular in Spain, although the movement against it has increased in recent years.
Bullfighting is only banned in the Canary Islands, although it is not practiced much, if at all, in other regions such as Catalonia, and the Balearic Islands.
