Hundreds of animal rights campaigners on Thursday protested against the annual bull runs due to begin on Saturday in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona.
Demonstrators dressed in nothing but underwear carried posters reading ”Torture is not culture”.
They opposed ”the terrible spectacle which forces terrified animals to run through the streets before being killed in the bull ring”, said a spokesperson for the organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta).
He estimated the number of participants at 1 500 and said they came from more than 30 countries.
In the Pamplona bull runs, six fighting bulls are let loose on the narrow streets of the old city centre every morning for eight days.
Daredevil men known as mozos run alongside the animals with no defensive weapons other than folded newspapers.
The bulls run to the bull ring where they are killed in an evening bullfight.
Numerous tourists participate in the bull runs, which have claimed 14 lives since 1924. — Sapa-dpa