(Au) Fools run with bulls and hyprocrites carp

[Guest guest]

Fwd : It doesn't get any better than this article by Adelaide journalist,

Rex Joy,

in last week's Advertiser. His email address is at the end of the article

if you want to comment. Following is Animal Liberation's

(unpublished)reply. Wendy

*******************************

Fools run with bulls and hyprocrites carp

Adelaide Advertiser,

South Australia

11jul02

 

TRY this. Imagine for a moment that every day this week a dozen wild-eyed

bulls were let loose at the Fullarton Rd end of the Norwood Parade. They

were then hounded and harassed down the Parade and driven, white with the

foam of fear and panic, into the Norwood Oval.

 

To add to the chaos, 2000 bold and stupid people, most of them buoyed by

the false courage of alcohol, ran among the bulls. Tens of thousands more,

safe behind temporary barricades, cheered the frenzied stampede. If the

frustrated would-be matadors are trampled or gored, that's all part of the

ritual.

 

Of course it would never happen. The State Government, the Norwood,

Payneham and St Peters Council, the Norwood traders, the RSPCA, the RAA,

the Insurance Council and the Flat Earth Society would all oppose it. Cost,

cruelty and disruption would be only a few of the reasons.

 

Yet every day this week in the Spanish city of Pamplona bulls are forced to

run among the crowds down narrow and hazardous cobble-stoned streets. The

cruel, four-minute stampede is played out in defiance of protests from

animal liberation groups. Anyone who raises a voice of dissent is shouted

down.

 

The running of the bulls in Pamplona is not a tourist gimmick. It is is a

semi-religious ritual, an event which has its origins buried in the mists

of history. Bulls are injured and terrified. The brave and poorly-advised

who run with them are occasionally hospitalised, even killed, by the

murderous horns or brick-hard hoves of the 600kg bulls.

 

Most of the time the bull-run is predictable and orderly. The runners

sprint ahead, among, or behind the bulls until, disoriented and bewildered,

the beasts enter the local bull-fighting ring. But sometimes the bulls

break ranks and turn on the crowds of young would-be matadors, fired by

artificial bravado. The Spanish simply regard that as the luck of the run.

 

My first reaction is to snort my disapproval at the running of the bulls at

Pamplona. It is, by any measure, barbaric and cruel. It should be stopped.

Outlawed. Australians should boycott it. We should write to Spanish

politicians agitating for an end to this ancient custom.

 

But why? Is it my right to oppose a cultural custom. In Australia, we

meekly justify the shooting of kangaroos, buffalo, horses, goats and camels

because of the perceived environmental damage they cause. We kill rabbits

with debilitating viruses. We encourage big game fishing and goad white

pointer sharks.

 

We permit the slaughter of water birds during shooting seasons designated

by Parliament. We allow performing lions, tigers and elephants at circuses.

We condone chickens being raised in cruel and cramped cages until they are

killed for human consumption, we crowd livestock into ships for live

export. We applaud equestrians who ride horses over murderous jumps.

 

Yet, from our lofty vantage point 15,000km away, we brand the Spanish

insensitive and cruel for running with the bulls. The ritual of bull

fighting itself - a custom which is one of the fundamental cultural planks

on the Iberian Peninsula - we condemn without question. What hypocrisy.

 

If animal cruelty and the indiscriminate slaughter of wildlife is part of

our culture, what right do we have to condemn it in others? The difference

is that battery hens are convenient and cheap. We justify shooting

kangaroos and outback vermin on environmental grounds. Making lions jump

through hoops of fire is amusing. Shooting ducks provides food. Besides,

it's the way we've always done it.

 

I'm not happy about the running of the bulls. I care about the bulls but

little for the brave idiots who risk their lives to run with them. At least

they have a choice.

 

But what right do I - or any of us for that matter - have to condemn the

barbaric ritual of the Spanish until we eradicate our own forms of animal

cruelty?

 

It's better to be silent than hypocritical. joryr

 

LETTER TO THE EDTOR

 

I was truly delighted to read the passionate comments of Rex Jory in

Thursdays Advertiser. I think Rex will prick many a conscience with his

comparison of the cruelty of factory farming, duck shooting etc in

Australia v the obvious cruelty of the running of the bulls and bull

fighting in Spain. Australian factory farms, some only kilometers from

Adelaide suburbs, inflict unimaginable cruelty on millions of animals every

day. Most of us conveniently ignore this daily cruelty as we express our

outrage at Spanish traditions, whilst sitting down to a meal of bacon and

eggs which has inflicted a far worse life on millions of Australian

animals. As it happens, today (Friday 12th July) I will be meeting with the

Minister for Animal Welfare's key policy adviser about such cruelty. I am

disappointed that the Minister John Hill, was apparently too busy to talk

to me about these real animal welfare concerns. But that is the reality of

Australian politics. I will be met by a well meaning and polite bureaucrat

whose job as gatekeeper will be to make me go away so the Minister can deal

with " real " issues. They will tell me how busy the Minister is and that it

is too expensive for the industry to give battery hens and pigs a few extra

centimeters of space, and that unfortunately animals don't vote. They will

say the Minister will take our comments on board, and then shelve our

submissions until we meet again in two years time. And here is where I

disagree with Rex. I and members of Animal Liberation will not be silent

and will not go away. We will voice our concerns in every arena that will

listen. We will act with our feet by refusing to eat products of cruel

factory farms and by protesting for the animals that can't vote. We will

enter the factory farms at night and then expose the cruel practices by

day. There is an alternative to silent outrage or hypocrisy - stop stalling

and get active.

 

Ralph Hahnheuser

Campaign manager

Animal Liberation

South Australia