The Great Bull Run
The Great Bull Run is an event that was created by two former attorneys that made a life decision that they didn’t want to shuffle paperwork any longer and decided to create a company that hosts large events.
This event is a sugar-coated version of Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls. It is a day-long festival including bands, games, food and tomato food fights. The first event took place in Richmond, Virginia to follow with events in Georgia, Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Many precautions have been made in order to minimize the risk for the thrill seekers that want to run with these bulls. The event takes place on a ¼ mile track that has slate fencing and nooks to assist the runners in escaping a large bull with a vengeance. The event is also staffed with on-site emergency personnel and professional bull handlers to run with the crowd in order to help if someone finds themselves in a tight spot.
The bulls chosen for these U.S. based events aren’t aggressive bulls such as the bulls that are used in Spain. The bulls run seven to eight times per day and the runs consist of 500 runners on the track vs. twelve bulls with the exception of the last run that consists of five hundred to six hundred runners on the track vs. twenty-four bulls.
This is an event tailored for the thrill seeking adrenaline junkies but other U.S. groups do not share the same feeling towards these events.
Animal Activist Organization, PETA is very unhappy about this event. They feel that all the runners, spectators and participants have a choice in signing their waivers and putting their lives in danger of serious injury, in turn the bulls are just driven around the U.S. and forced to nervously run in a crowd of rowdy people with no regard to their safety and well-being.
The founders of these events have made statements that the animals are not hurt or injured in these runs and ask the spectators of the event if any abuse is observed to report it to the authorities.
There are definitely many varying viewpoints that have come to the surface with this event but nonetheless the show must go on.