Bullfight campaigner plans naked protest

Hope Carveth, aged 20, a former pupil of St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury and The Downs school, Compton, is joining in the protest organised by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) UK, and Spanish group AnimaNaturalis.
Miss Carveth studies veterinary medicine at the Royal Veterinary College in London and will be one of dozens of people who will take part in the demonstration in Pamplona, Spain.
During the festival of San Fermin, the bulls are herded down the town’s narrow cobblestone streets – the running of the bulls – before arriving at the bullring.
Miss Carveth said: “Beforehand they are kept in darkness and then forced into the streets with prods where they are blinded by the sunlight.
“They slip and slide all over the place and then they end up in the bullring where they are stabbed and debilitated with weapons and sticks with harpoon points, causing massive bleeding.
“They are then killed by the matador, who cuts their spinal cord which paralyses them. It’s extremely cruel and extremely traumatic.”
The practice has already been banned in many other countries, but Miss Carveth and the other protestors want a complete ban in Spain and hope that the protest will be a way of highlighting the cruelty.
She said: “Tormenting and butchering animals can never be justified as entertainment. Tourists go and see it without realising what happens; they are then shocked and appalled by it.
“The protest is about educating the public so that they know it’s barbaric.”
Miss Carveth said that she hoped that being naked would make people stare, and then take notice.
She said: “Naked is what gets into the press – it makes people notice because it’s shocking. We want people to look, so I’m totally happy to do it . If it creates the effect then it’s worth it.”
She added that one of the arguments sometimes put forward in favour of bullfighting is that it’s traditional and part of the culture.
“But tradition is no excuse for cruelty and it should be banned,” she said.