http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBCZTfGyRMg&feature=youtu.be
Dear Mark,
Today we paid a visit to STA Travel’s flagship store in London, Victoria with ‘Bully’ the bull to ask them why they are still promoting the cruel Pamplona fiesta – Watch what happened here
Six weeks ago we contacted STA Travel about their promotion of the Pamplona Bull Run and bullfighting. We pointed out how they are not abiding by the ABTA Animal Welfare Guidelines, of which they are signed up to and called for them to stop selling trips from 2015 and talk to us now about the issues.
The company has however refused to talk to us, aside from one tweet last week. As such we decided to book an appointment to see them in their flagship store today.
Despite STA saying on Friday that they were reviewing packages and not selling trips to Pamplona a member of our staff, pretending to be an interested customer, was offered a trip to the festival on sale and also their ‘Europe 2014’ brochures are still in store with five different Pamplona trips promoted.
Our friend ‘Bully’ the bull then joined and we revealed we were from the League. We handed over a copy of ABTA’s animal welfare guidelines and yet another request to meet with their CEO.
>> Click here to watch the film from today
We await their response, but in the meantime we would encourage you, if you have not done so already, to please get in touch with STA Travel by taking part in our action.
Please take action NOW and ask STA Travel to stop supporting bull running and bullfighting.
Take Action
Once you’ve taken action please also share with your friends and family. Together we are stronger for animals.
Thank you for your support.
Mark McCormick
Campaigner
Bull Running Festivals
The ‘running of the bulls’ is a practice which involves letting loose up to a dozen bulls to run with and in front of thousands of jeering crowds along a designated route to their final destination, the bull ring.
The Sanfermines or Pamplona bull run is the most publicised bull run which attracts thousands of International tourists each year, but there are bull runs and bull running festivals which operate in many towns and countries across Spain and Mexico, and in many other countries such as Portugal, Peru, Nevada, France, California and more recently Arizona.
The Pamplona Bull Run
The Pamplona Bull Run takes place during the San Fermin festival in Spain every year between the 6th July and 14th July. This year’s campaign against this cruel festival has seen the League appeal to the student travel operator, STA Travel asking them to stop promoting and selling trips to the festival through their supplier TopDeck Travel.
STA Travel are an ABTA member and despite being signed up to ABTA’s Animal Welfare Guidelines, which deem bull running and bullfighting as ‘unacceptable practices involving animals in cultural events and activities’, are still confusingly selling packages that support tourist attendance at the Pamplona Bull Run.
We have written to them to ask them why they do this. We have called them. We have emailed them. But they refuse to talk to us about why they continue to support bull running and bullfighting, knowing full well it is in breach of the Guidelines.
So we need your help
Please contact STA now ahead of the festival starting on Sunday, and ask them to do the right thing and stop promoting Pamplona Running of the Bulls.
Each morning bulls are forced to run a kilometre down the cobblestone streets of the town, chased by cheering participants and spectators. Once released, the bulls are frightened with gun shots, electrocuted with cattle prods and kicked and hit by jeering spectators, often down concrete or cobbled streets which they slip and slide on, suffering broken legs and other injuries in the process.
The bulls are chased into a holding pen at the bull ring, to await their deaths at the bullfights, during the ‘corrida de toros’ that take place later that evening. Whilst in the holding pens some may be subjected to further ‘weakening’ which can involve the shaving of their horns (an excruciating process which leaves them disorientated and more sensitive to pain), being debilitated with laxatives, having vaseline rubbed into their eyes to impair vision, and by being drugged.
In front of jeering crowds, the bulls are then tortured and antagonised by the matadors on horseback, waving flags and repeatedly stabbing the confused animals in the neck and back. The injured, bleeding bull, weakened and exhausted, is then killed with a sword by the picador.
If the animal is not killed immediately, it is stabbed repeatedly until paralysed. When the bull finally collapses, its spinal cord is cut, but the animal may still be conscious as its ears and tail are cut off and kept as a ‘trophies’.
Bull fights and fiestas attract people from all over the world; including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, America and Europe, including the UK. Many are unaware of the bulls’ fate after the initial ‘running’. Frustratingly, revenue generated from curious tourists ensures the survival of fiestas such as San Fermin.
Even though the fiesta is often described by package selling tour operators as ‘a spectacle not to be missed’, the harsh reality is that the spectacle they are referring to is based on savagery and cruelty, with no regard for the welfare of the animals at the centre of the attention.
However, like many cruel sports, bullfighting and cruel fiestas continue to be justified by those involved as being part of the country’s history and culture. The League argues that this is a poor excuse for a practice that most people in Spain, the UK and around the world view as ritualised animal abuse.
The pro-bullfighting lobby would have us believe the faux ‘contest’ between a willing man and an unwilling bull is ‘art and culture, a magical rite of life, a just and honourable way of life where man and bull combine to create unique and unrepeatable moments’, an argument that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Recently, the popular video sharing portal, YouTube, closed down channels devoted to Spain’s “national fiesta”, removing content showing bloody scenes of bulls being lanced by picadors, which it publically categorised as animal abuse.
We are asking for the public not to support this barbaric practice and to boycott any and all forms of bull running fiestas and bullfights, opting for a humane but yet exhilarating festival such as La Tomatina, coined the world’s biggest food fight, where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets, and no animals are hurt as a result.
and …………….
https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2014/01/31/uk-celebrate-90-years-of-saving-foxes-and-other-wildlife-with-the-lacs/
See Dave and the ‘No Joke’ campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7AQVXt7qVI#t=60
Above – the real side of foxhunting. East Kent Murder.
Photo – Mark Johnson – SAV Founder.
KEEP CRUELTY HISTORY !!
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 