HOW can any civilised country tolerate and justify such an event as the nine-day Pamplona Festival (Echo, July 10)?

Frightened bulls forced to run through the streets, goaded and shouted at by stupid men high on drink who risk their lives in the stampede, regardless of what their deaths would mean to their families.

And the bulls get no relief at the end, for the afternoons mean torture and death in the bull-ring. What a way to treat animals in the EC, why isn't it banned?

Our own Vicki Moore protested on the spot, was injured, and died subsequently of her wounds, yet still this annual persecution goes on. Reason enough, surely, to boycott Spain and all things Spanish.

SHEILA CLAYTON, Southampton United Animal Charities, 16.