A group of half-naked animal rights demonstrators brought Madrid’s historic Puerta del Sol square to a halt on Wednesday in a protest against bullfighting.
Shoppers gawped and tourists snapped photos as the five young women and one man carried out one of a series of protests leading up to the traditional “running of the bulls” in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona starting next week.
“Stop the Bloody Bullfights” read one sign held by the protesters, who wore only white panties and plastic bulls horns on their heads. “Torture is not art or culture” they chanted.
“We are trying to convince the majority of people who are indifferent, who oppose bullfighting but do not openly speak out against it,” said Leonora Esquivel from Mexico, president of rights group Anima Naturalis.
Esquivel estimated some 70,000 bulls a year were killed in bullfights in Spain, which she said had the worst animal rights record in Europe.
Some people in the crowd heckled the protesters, defending Spain’s tradition of bullfighting.
“Bull running and bullfights are known as the national fiesta here in Spain,” said Domingo Granado, 73. “I like bullfighting, but everyone has a right to their opinion.”
Pamplona’s ancient San Fermin festival begins next Wednesday and draws tens of thousands of visitors during a week-long frenzy. The bullruns along a 2,707-foot course to the bullring take place each morning from Thursday.
The festival was made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1920s novel “The Sun also Rises.”
