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Vet student joins naked protest against bullfights





Hope Carveth (pictured at front), aged 20, a former pupil at St Bartholomew's School, Newbury, and The Downs School, Compton, joined 47 other people in Pamplona for the campaign organised by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals UK and Spanish group AnimaNaturalis.
They staged their protest on July 5, two days before the start of the annual Running of the Bulls, a popular tourist event which sees runners racing through the city’s cobbled streets pursued by the bulls and which frequently results in death and serious injury of participants. They stood in 48 coffins – to represent the number of bulls that would be stabbed and killed during the Festival of San Fermín – for almost an hour in the main square.
Miss Carveth, who is studying veterinary medicine at Royal Veterinary College, London, said: “There was lots of media there. It was quite sad though because when we arrived, we got dropped off right where they were keeping the bulls.”
By being naked, she said that she hoped more people would take notice. “We had members of the public asking questions,” she said. “We didn’t have any hostility, just a lot of people being curious. It shows that the Spanish people have grown up with the running of the bulls. They don’t really care about it – it’s the tourists who watch it
“I think a lot of people don’t realise that the bulls are tortured and they end up dead.
“It raises awareness that the bulls are not retired into a nice field – they are chased to their death.”
She added: “It was such a worthwhile experience, and I would definitely do it again.”
Bullfighting is banned in many countries, and Miss Carveth said the aim of the protest was to educate more people, especially tourists, which would put pressure of the Spanish government to bring an end to the blood sport.
However, the culture committee of the Spanish congress of deputies is currently considering whether the event, also held in many other towns and villages across the country, should be granted legal protection as a cultural pastime.
Eight people were injured in this year’s event, including an Australian woman who was gored in the back and suffered multiple rib fractures and damage to her right lung.



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