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Running
for their lives, and that
By JUDITH HANEY USNewsLink/May 5, 2002 I've been running from bull all my life, but I have never WILLINGLY gotten in the way of a herd of 1500 pound bulls. But that's what 800 VERY BORED Arizonan's did over the weekend. And they paid the promoter of the Rawhide Wild West Town in Scottsdale perfectly good money to participate in this 'Cowpoke-Wannabe-A-Bull-Fighter' 'spectacle! Following their obligatory signing of a 4-page legal document holding the bulls (and their owner's) harmless in case of death or injury (theirs, not the bulls), these otherwise sane women and men took off running down a 1/3 mile, curvy, desert chute enclosed by a high steel fence while being chased by a herd of very large bulls and steers with very wide horns. Members of the Animal Defense League of Arizona watched the 'fun' and commented that "when animals are used for entertainment, there is always a concern." CONCERN? Concern for the bulls or the people? Concern is one word to describe what it must feel like to run for your life while knowing all along that you signed up for it, paid good money to do it, and stand a very good chance that you won't walk out the same way you walked in. At last report, there were several rooms being reserved at the Arizona State Hospital For the Mentally Impaired with the names of the "bull runners" posted on the door (...and for the record, that IS a lot of bull). |
