A Bull Run Where No One Gets Hurt
At least 41 people suffered injuries during Pamplona’s San Fermin festival this year. One runner from Pamplona remains in the hospital after he was gored so deeply that his diaphragm ruptured. An Australian teenager fractured three vertebrae, and an Australian man was gored in the leg, piercing his femoral artery, after he taunted a bull. Then there was the man who thought it was a good idea to run naked at a bull while waving a red handkerchief. Not surprisingly, he wound up on the wrong end of a horn.
While no people were killed in this year’s runs, the bulls didn’t fare as well. After being run through the streets to the bullring, they were all killed in bullfights.
Instead of killing bulls, we much prefer the version of the run cooked up by roller derby groups, in which roller girls wearing horned hats and wielding Nerf weaponry chase participants through the streets in a running of bullies. Thrill-seekers can experience a festive, exhilarating chase that doesn’t end at the hospital or the bullring.
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| Roller girls in New Orleans show that the notion that abusing bulls is fun is, well, bull. |
Written by Michelle Sherrow
