Nearly Naked Dundalk Woman Fills Sky With ‘Blood’ to Highlight Torture of Bulls in Pamplona

For Immediate Release:
5 July 2017

Contact:
Olivia Jordan +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

NEARLY NAKED DUNDALK WOMAN FILLS SKY WITH ‘BLOOD’ TO HIGHLIGHT TORTURE OF BULLS IN PAMPLONA

Grace McKeown Joins Activists From Around the World to Demand an End to Cruel Running of the Bulls

Pamplona, Spain – Wearing little more than fake bull horns and black underwear with the words “Stop Bullfights” painted on her body, Grace McKeown from Dundalk joined nearly 100 protesters in the centre of Pamplona today. The activists broke “banderillas” containing red powdered paint above their heads, covering themselves and filling the air around them with “blood”. The protest – which was organised by PETA and Spanish animal-protection group AnimaNaturalis – took place ahead of the Running of the Bulls, during which dozens of bulls are terrorised and struck as they slip and slide down narrow streets on their way to a violent death in the city’s bullring.

Photos of McKeown and of the event are available here, here and here, and video footage is available here.

 “Torturing and killing animals can never be justified as entertainment,” says McKeown. “We stand united with the vast majority of Spanish people, who don’t support bloody bullfighting spectacles.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – notes that prior to the Running of the Bulls, electric prods and sharp sticks are often used to torment the bulls. The animals then career along the cobblestone streets, pursued by hundreds of people, before ending up in the bullring. There, as many as eight men taunt, beat, and stab a single bull with daggers and harpoon-like banderillas until he becomes weakened from blood loss. Finally, the matador stabs the exhausted bull with a sword, and an executioner cuts the animal’s spinal cord. Many bulls drown in their own blood when the matadors’ aim is inaccurate and the sword pierces the lungs instead of the heart. Often, the animals are paralysed but still conscious as they’re chained and dragged out of the arena.

McKeown is available for interviews and more photos are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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