'Bull-free' summer celebrated
Demonstrators call for 'permanent end' to 'cruel' spectacle
NO BULLS will be getting herded into the sea this summer in Dénia, but animalloving protesters were keen to make sure nobody forgets what the bovine victims suffer every year during the town's main fiestas.
Around 40 demonstrators marched down the Marqués de Campo boulevard on Sunday – which would have been the first day of the bull-runs - in full view of locals and visitors relaxing on bar terraces with their drinks, waving banners and blowing whistles.
They said they are happy that the council has opted to call off the controversial 'bous a la mar' festival for 2020 – even though this was due to the pandemic, not for the animals' benefit – and urged them to do the same every year afterwards.
Protesters read out a manifesto saying this year's cancellation should be made permanent so that 'this cruel spectacle does not return to the town'.
Placards being carried read 'Enough violence', 'Abolish bull-fighting', 'Bous a la mar = cruelty to animals', and 'Antispecies abomination'.
Although a major tourist attraction in Dénia, the bous a la mar (bulls in the sea) is often described as primitive, irresponsible and unethical.
A bull, or often a young cow, is released into a pop-up portside arena with one side open onto the sea, and dare-devil spectators can enter freely, with no prior training or protective gear, to agitate the animal by waving T-shirts at them, chasing them, and even hitting them with sticks and pulling their tail.
The aim is to get the bull to jump into the sea, although it is usually the have-a-go humans who end up leaping into the water to escape a goring.
Bulls can swim, and a boat nearby immediately catches them to tow them ashore, but occasionally bulls or cows have drowned.
The animals also become very distressed, confused and overheated, and are in danger of suffering a heart attack.