That includes non-humans, as you can see in the photo below taken from the most recent San Fermin Festival in Spain. I can’t really feel too sorry for this guy from Pennsylvania. After all, he traveled thousands of miles to “prove his manhood” by being chased by bulls that have been driven crazy and that by the end of the will have been tortured and killed. This guy will simply walk away with a scar that he’ll probably brag about for the rest of his life.

I still like to see these little acts of rebellion, like the elephants in Africa who destroyed the development that was encroaching on their ancestral lands, even if ultimately they end in the animals’ deaths. To me, it shows a sense of agency. Like when the zapatistas rose up in 1994 in what they originally called their suicide. They figured they were already dead, so why not die with dignity? I don’t think anyone really expected that a decade later they’d still be actively engaged in a model of democracy and self-determination that would be mimicked by movements around the world. Who knows, maybe one day these acts of rebellion from non-human animals will result in the dignity that all life deserves.

From AP: “Michael Lenahan, 23, of Philadelphia, Pa. is gored in the leg by a fighting bull during a traditional bull run in Pamplona, Spain, Thursday July 12, 2007. Two American brothers were gored Thursday during the longest and bloodiest morning bull run at the San Fermin festival in the northeastern city of Pamplona. Lawrence Lenahan, 26, of Hermosa Beach, Calif. and Michael Lenahan, 23, of Philadelphia, Pa. were gored by a bull who strayed from the pack, turned around and ran the wrong way. The older brother suffered a eight-inch (20-centimeter) goring in the left buttock after a dangerous sharp right turn in the course Lenahan described as a ‘dead man’s curve.’ The younger brother was injured shortly before the bull ring, the end point of the daily runs, after the bulls horn entered beneath his skin in his right shin. (AP Photo/ Inaki Porto)”