By Emma Ross-Thomas, Reuters PAMPLONA, Spain (Reuters)
Topless women, some wearing just a G-string, and men in their underpants marched through Pamplona on Monday demanding an end to Spain's renowned fiesta -- the running of the bulls.
After police stopped animal rights activists from staging a nude protest last year, the 200 demonstrators cut a deal with the authorities that they could make their case as long as they did not bare all.
The protesters followed the route of the bull run through the city's narrow streets, shouting "Torture isn't culture" and waving placards reading "Stop the bloody bull fight."
Thousands of tourists from around the world travel to the northern Spanish town every year to risk death running with the bulls in the centuries-old San Fermin festival.
"Slaves and gladiators were tradition too but that doesn't make it OK," said 34-year-old shipping agent Marcus from Stuttgart, Germany.
The week-long running of the bulls - made famous by Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises" - starts on Wednesday when a dozen bulls are released onto the city's cobbled streets. The bulls face certain death in the bullring after running the 825-meter (2,700-foot).
Since 1910, 15 people have been killed in the bull runs.
"We want to be an attraction as well," said 26-year-old Sabina from Vienna, sporting two pierced nipples and bending over to give a photographer a better shot of a "Vegetarian Society Approved" tattoo on her buttock.
"Hopefully people will be more interested in what we're doing than the bulls," added retired miner Robert Lewis, 54, his ample white belly hanging over his boxer shorts.
A thong-clad Italian woman wore two strategically placed slogan-bearing stickers on her breasts while some women waved banners modestly over their bare chests. Some Pamplona residents complained that foreigners were meddling with Spanish tradition but many were entranced with the spectacle.
"If that's how people want to entertain themselves, that's fine. (We're here) to see the girls, simple as that," 64-year- old retired Pamplona resident Pedro said.
07/06/04 08:57 ET
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